West Bengal youth gets life term for kidnapping

A youth from West Bengal was today awarded life sentence by a local court in a 2011 inter-state kidnapping case related to a Madhya Pradesh businessman and his son.
Additional Sessions Judge D N Mishra found Abdul Momin guilty of criminal conspiracy and kidnapping for ransom and sent him to jail for life. The Judge also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the 24-year-old convict.
Another accused Ameen Khan (23) was acquitted for lack of proof while three other suspects wanted in the case are still at large.
Prosecution counsel Ravindra Singh Gaud told reporters that Momin was held guilty of being involved in the kidnapping of businessman Gokul Parsad Sharma (45) and his son Rajesh (24), residents of Shajapur district in Madhya Pradesh.

Momin was part of a group which had called Sharma and his son to Bardhaman district of West Bengal on the pretext of striking a business deal on October 15, 2011, and then kept them hostage for ten days, Gaud said.
The kidnappers, who posed as Narcotics Department officers, demanded a ransom of Rs 7 lakh from the father-son duo to free them. They threatened to kill one of them if the money was not paid.
The businessman arranged the first instalment of Rs 3.8 lakh after which he and his son were freed. After reaching Indore, they lodged a police complaint on October 26, 2011, he added.