5-Year term for kidnappers

BANGALORE: The High Court on Thursday set aside the lower court order and sentenced three persons, involved in the kidnapping of a four-and-a-half-year-old boy from the city in 2004, to five years of imprisonment.BackgroundSomu Maurya, son of city-based building contractor Jaipraksh Maurya, was kidnapped in 2004. The kidnapping case was registered in Whitefield police station.Tracing the footsteps of the kidnappers, the police arrested Trenath Rai, who was a quack in Uttar Pradesh and had fled after a crackdown on quacks by the U P Government and settled here in the city. In 2004, along with two of his associates, Esan Mohan and Rajesh, Rai kidnapped his employer, Jaiprakash’s son and demanded a ransom of Rs 5 lakh cash.However, after he was arrested and produced before the Court the lower court acquitted them.Hearing an appeal by the Whitefield police challenging the lower court order to acquit the accused the division bench comprising Justice N Ananda and Justice V S Appa Rao set aside the lower court order and sentenced them to five years rigorous imprisonment to all the three kidnappers.