In an era of growing teenage crimes, conflict between the demand for protecting the rights of juveniles and enforcement of the law and order, Supreme Court in an important judgment has laid down that the Juvenile Justice Act benefits could not be provided in heinous crimes in a straight jacketed formula.
Refusing to allow Juvenile Justice Act benefit to Vikas Chaudhary, a young mastermind of his rich friend Prakash Chadha’s kidnapping and murder in January 2003 in the capital, the top court said he was not entitled to the benefit as he continued to make ransom calls to the victim’s father in next two months even after the killing and in the process attained the age of adulthood.
Chaudhary along with his four other friends allured Chadha for outing but they actually had hatched a conspiracy to kidnap him for a hefty ransom of Rs 35 lakhs, which was demanded from his father on January 18, 2003 soon after his abduction. But the panicked accused killed Chadha the very next day.
“We are unable to accept the submission that the offence of kidnapping under Section 364A of IPC stood abrogated upon the death of the victim. On the other hand, the continuation of the ransom calls being made even after the death, converts the offence into a continuing crime within the meaning of section 472 of the CrPC,” a bench of Justices Altams Kabir and M.K. Sharma ruled.
The SC said Section 472 deals with a situation where an offence continues for a substantial period of time and under it the limitation for continuance of the offence begins to run at every movement till the crime is over.
Chadha went with Chaudhary, Vikas Sidhu and some other known friends on January 18, 2003 from his Ashok Vihar residence without clearly stating anything to his family members. The last call to his father for Rs 35 lakh ransom was made on March 11 though Chadha had been killed on January 19.