Madhya Pradesh High Court: The conviction of the appellant under Section 364-A IPC was altered to Section 365 by a Division Bench comprising of J.P. Gupta and Anjuli Palo, JJ.
The appellant was found guilty by the trial court for the alleged offence of kidnapping the victim. It was alleged that he kidnapped the victim and released him only after receiving a ransom of Rs. 40000. The appellant contended that he was falsely implicated in the case. He challenged the decision of the trial court whereby he was convicted and sentenced under Section 364-A of IPC.
The High Court gave due consideration to the material available on record and held that the fact that the Executive Magistrate concerned did not prove the Test Identification Parade do not make it inadmissible. Section 291-A CrPC provides that such evidence is permitted even in absence of formal proof by the concerned Executive Magistrate. However, the Court also found that there were material discrepancies in the statements of the witnesses. Further, it was nowhere alleged that the appellant threatened the victim to cause death or hurt. Neither the fact of ransom taken by the appellant was proved beyond reasonable doubt. Therefore, the Court was of the view that the appellant could not be convicted under Section 364-A. However, his conviction was altered to that under Section 365 IPC. Accordingly, the appeal was partly allowed. [Shiv Murat Kol v. State of M.P., 2018 SCC OnLine MP 336, dated 07-05-2018]
