Child kidnappers get 10 years in jail
April 17th, 2011 - 2:37 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, April 17 (IANS) A Delhi court has awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment to two habitual child kidnappers, including a woman.
The court also said that punishment for child abduction should be enhanced to meet the challenge of growing number of kidnappings.
Ritu Kapoor, 41, and Mohammed Jiyaul, 26, were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and fined Rs.5,000 for “kidnapping in order to murder”.
Additional Session Judge Kamini Lau also sentenced them to another seven years and fined them an additional Rs.2,000.
“Both sentences shall run concurrently,” the judge said April 13.
The public prosecutor said the convicts were habitual child lifters and were involved in five other cases of similar nature.
Two of the abducted children had been recovered from Kapoor’s residence in north Delhi after her arrest.
Kapoor kidnapped a month-and-half-old boy of Anita from her house at Mukherjee Nagar Nov 13, 2008 with Jiyaul’s help. Kapoor had pretended to be a government representative.
The court said: “The convicts being habitual child lifters, any leniency shown is likely to be misplaced under the given circumstances when the child itself is not traceable.
“Kidnapping has become a major problem in our society. It is a profitable business, if the victim is an infant belonging to a poor family.
“Physical appearance of the child aged a few months frequently changes, making it difficult for even family members to identify after a long time.
“The situation becomes all the more difficult when the victim belongs to a poor family and the child’s family is unable to provide any identification proof in the form of photograph etc,” the court observed.
The judge said: “Delhi has one of the highest numbers of missing children, and the country has no central data on the number of children who go missing or what has happened to them.
“As many as 60,000 young children below the age of 18 were reported missing in 2009 across India compared to 44,000 in 2004. And 40 percent of them were traced through the individual efforts by parents.”
According to Alliance for Peoples’ Rights, at least seven children, mostly from extremely poor families, go missing every hour. This amounts to 165 a day.
About 10 percent or 6,000 children who go missing are infants — less than a year old.
- Sukhdev Pehalwan gets life term for Nitish Katara murder (Second Lead) - Jul 12, 2011
- No mercy for kidnappers of children, says Supreme Court - Dec 05, 2011
- Castration most befitting punishment for rapists: Court - Feb 17, 2012
- Delhi rapist jailed for six years - Jun 12, 2011
- Court upholds life term for teacher who hijacked plane (Lead) - Mar 29, 2011
- Three to die for killing four-year-old - May 25, 2012
- Punjab minister gets jail term for daughter's death (Lead) - Mar 30, 2012
- Man says he killed kids he couldn't sell - Feb 18, 2012
- Former Delhi judge awarded 3-year jail for graft - Apr 28, 2012
- Punjab agriculture minister gets one year jail - May 05, 2012
- Telgi gets 7-year jail in fake stamp paper scam - Sep 18, 2010
- Jaycee Dugard's kidnappers 'confess to 18 years of sex abuse' - Mar 02, 2011
- Nitish Katara murder: Third accused held guilty - Jul 06, 2011
- Rajya Sabha passes bill on sexual offences against kids - May 11, 2012
- Improve child labourers' rehabilitation, court tells Delhi - Jan 12, 2011
Tags: abducted children, child abduction, convicts, delhi court, government representative, kamini, kidnappers, leniency, lifters, missing children, mohammed, New Delhi, north delhi, physical appearance, profitable business, public prosecutor, rigorous imprisonment, ritu kapoor, rs 2, seven years