Abdulvahab Abdul Majid Shaikh & Ors vs State Of Gujarat

The case of the prosecution was that PW 3 Jayendra Mahendra Tripathi was a builder having a construction company of his own. He was also working as a teacher during the relevant period and staying in Kundan Apartment in Vasna area in Ahmedabad. The office of the construction company was in Deep Apartment at Vasna. He used to go to his office in the evening. On 19.1.1994, he left his house at 4.00 p.m. on way to the office. Walking towards office, when he reached the place near Vasna Bus Stand, a Maruti van came and stopped near him. He was shown a visiting card by the occupants of the van to enquire about the address mentioned thereon. While PW 3 Jayendra Mahendra Tripathi was reading the visiting card, somebody pushed him from behind and he was forced into the Maruti van. Inside the van, his head and face were covered with a woolen cap. 5-6 persons were sitting in the Maruti van and after the victim was forced into the van, the van moved and travelled for 30-45 minutes and eventually he was taken to the cellar of a building. There, the victim gave the telephone number of his construction company, but as there was no response from that telephone number, he gave the telephone number of his friend K.K. Vaidh. PW 3 Jayendra Mahendra Tripathi was kept in a room in that building and according to the prosecution, the accused persons made a demand of Rs. 5 lakhs from the partners of the construction company.

The partners of the construction company withdrew Rs. 10 lakhs from the Union Bank of India and a relative of the victim, namely, PW 4 Kirtikumar Tapishanker Tripathi, was asked to come with Rs. 3 lakhs near Anjali Cinema on 19.1.1994 at an evening time by the victim himself who spoke to him on telephone. He was asked to come by a rickshaw and to handover Rs. 3 lakhs to a person who would identify himself by a code (No. 500). He came with Rs. 3 lakhs near Anjali Cinema Square Road. A person came on a motorcycle, identified himself with the aforesaid code and the bag containing Rs. 3 lakhs was given to that person.

PW 2 Harshad Premjibhi Gajjar gave a complaint to the police on the same day, i.e. 19.1.1994. A case was registered by PW 14 Police Inspector and investigation started. During investigation, the house of A-6 Salim Haveliwala was searched on 23.3.1994 and a sum of Rs. 50,000/- was recovered. Thereafter, the house of his father-in-law A-7 Yakub Ganibhai was also searched and Rs. 1,75,000/- was recovered. Bundles of notes recovered from his house were showing the slips of Union Bank of India, C.G. Road, Relief Road and Rajpur branches, Ahmedabad. During investigation, A-1 Abdulvahab Abdulmajid Shaikh, A-5 Mohammadrafik Abdulrahim Shaikh, A-3, Abdulsattar @ Sattar Ghanti, A-4 Mahammadsalim @ Salim Tolo and A-2 Najirmahammad Alimahammad Vora were arrested. Pursuant to the information furnished by A-4 Mahammadsalim @ Salim Tolo, six cartridges were recovered from a heap of bricks. On 8.9.1994, the investigation was taken over by ACP Shri B.R. Patil. He arrested A-9 Musakhan @ Babakhan Ismailkhan Pathan. This accused expressed his desire to give a confession and A-9 Musakhan @ Babakhan was produced before PW 1 DCP, Shri Suroliya. Shri Suroliya recorded the confession statement of A-9 Musakhan @ Babakhan and the investigating officer finally filed the charge- sheet.

These appeals before us are disposed of as follows.

In the result, the conviction of these three appellants for the offences punishable under Sections 120-B, 342, 365, 384 read with Section 120-B of the IPC is only to be confirmed. Criminal Appeal No. 525 of 2004 would accordingly stand dismissed and the appellants would surrender to their bail bonds.