Khonsa: The District and Sessions Court here on Wednesday sentenced two persons—Suresh Chakma and Prem Chakma—to life imprisonment for kidnapping an employee of the Udipta Energy and Equipment Private Ltd (UE&EPL), an Assam-based oil and gas exploration service in 2019.
Khonsa sessions Judge H Kashyap convicted Suresh alias Bakksu Chakma and Prem alias Sikko Chakma under Section 341/364A of Indian Penal Code and also under Section 25(1B)(a) of the Arms Act, 1959 for illegal possession of arms.
A fine of Rs 25,000 each has also been slapped on both of them.
Officials said, the incident took place 3 years ago on April 01, 2019 when one Rigman Kashyap Baruah, an employee of the UE&EPL along with his driver Manak Gogoi, was coming back towards Diyun from Manabhum in Changlang district on their official vehicle after work.
When they reached near the Maitripur Buddha Mandir, two masked persons equipped with arms like AK-47 intercepted their vehicle and abducted both of them at gunpoint. They were then taken to a nearby jungle.
Though Gogoi was released soon after, Borua was taken away and an amount of Rs 3 crore was later demanded by the abductees as ransom for his release. Borua was detained for a total of 29 days, officials said.
Meanwhile, following negotiations a sum of Rs 40 lakh was paid to the miscreants for Borua’s release.
Diyun police station sub-inspector Ramakant Yein who was responsible for investigating the case later managed to arrest fourteen miscreants including Suresh and Prem who are involved in the offence.
Out of the total ransom of Rs 40 lakh, Yein and his team managed to recover an amount of Rs 30,79,500 besides recovering a muzzle loading gun and a dummy AK-47 rifle used by the miscreants to commit the crime.
On completion of the investigation, a charge sheet was filed against the accused persons and Changlang chief judicial magistrate D Niri, while taking cognizance of the offence, sent the case for trial at the Khonsa sessions court.
Judge Kashyap expediently conducted the trial and convicted the miscreants.
Interestingly, Prem and Suresh were previously convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for committing a similar crime. They had, however, managed to flee to Bangladesh then.
While sentencing them to life imprisonment Judge Kashyap expressed that the convicts are habitual offenders and they do not deserve any leniency in punishment.
Besides the duo, the court also convicted eleven other people—Sukho Moni Chakma, Pradeep Chakma, Indu Ranjan Chakma, Noni Chakma, Shankar Chakma, Manu Hatchey Chakma, Dhonoraj Chakma, Sunanto Chakma, Sanjit Chakma, Shanti Moi Chakma and Jevan Chakma— under Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the IPC.
The 11 individuals, who had received certain portions of the ransom amount from the main accused knowing that the same was dishonestly extorted, have been ordered to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each for their offences, officials added.
