Bihar JD-U legislator gets life for kidnapping doctor

PATNA: Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) legislator Sunil Pandey and four others were on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping a doctor in 2003.

The Patna civil court also imposed a fine of Rs.50,000 on each of them. Though there were nine accused in the case, four are absconding.

Noted neurosurgeon Ramesh Chandra was kidnapped in Patna on the night of May 18, 2003 when he was returning home from a party. He was rescued two days later on May 20 by police from Chiraura village near Patna.

The abductors had demanded Rs.10 million but Chandra was rescued without paying anything, police then said.

Pandey is currently in the Rohtas district jail and has nearly two dozen criminal cases, including murder, kidnapping, extortion and loot pending against him. 

At the time of the kidnapping, he was a Samata Party legislator from Piro in Bhojpur district.

According to a confessional statement by Ranvijay, one of the accused, Pandey was to receive Rs.2.5 million from the ransom money and the rest was to be distributed amongst the others.

He also stated that Pandey had celebrated the successful abduction by firing in the air at Patna's Hotel Maurya.

Pandey, once said to be close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, hit the headlines in 2006 when threatened to kill some mediapersons at a hotel in Patna.