The court expressed concern over growing instances of abduction acquiring an "industry" status in recent times.
A court here sentenced five men to life imprisonment for kidnapping a businessman for ransom and expressed concern over growing instances of abduction acquiring an "industry" status in recent times.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each, apart from the prison term, on convicts Amar Misra, Satbir, Ravi, Mukesh and Rajender, after holding them guilty of kidnapping Sukhdayal Malik, a businessman, dealing in spare parts on July 16, 1994.
In its judgement, the court lent credence to tape-recorded conversations of the convicts demanding Rs 20 lakh for release of the victim who was rescued by the police four days after the incident.
The court also dwelt at length over the motives of professional gangs involved in such instances.
"Motive behind these kidnappings are always either money or release of other dreaded criminals as done in Kandahar hijacking case where a plane of Indian citizens was kidnapped from Nepal and was kept in detention in Kandahar by terrorists for seeking release of dreaded master mind like Masood Azhar and they eventually succeeded," the court said.
"Despite provisions of death sentence by Parliament, the instances of kidnapping for ransom are increasing day by day and it is now being tagged as industry in the criminal world," additional sessions judge Surinder S Rathi said.
The court said "the crime of kidnapping for ransom is not committed out of hatred, heated passions or compulsion or even because of some other disputes... but only due to lust for money."
The victim was followed from Kashmere Gate shop to his residence in Punjabi Bagh in west Delhi by the convicts where they kidnapped him at knife point after bundling him in a car.
He was kept in detention at different places for four days before being rescued by the police from Gandhi Nagar here on July 20, 1994.
The court also ordered that out of total cumulative fine of Rs 2.50 lakh, a sum of Rs two lakh would be paid to the victim's family as a token of compensation.
It also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on convict Satbir, who was found in possession of a rifle with live cartridges at the time of victim's rescue.
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