Kanpur: An additional sessions judge’s court on Thursday convicted five persons, including two brothers, for kidnapping a 16-year-old boy in 2008 and selling him to a gang that later demanded ransom from his parents.The court sentenced the five men to 10 years’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them.The convicts were identified as Raju Tiwari, his brother Kapil Tiwari, Rinku Tiwari, Amit Dixit and Sonu Pal.The court, however, acquitted three men due to lack of evidence. They were identified as Amit Tiwari alias Pintoo, Sandeep Tiwari alias Santy and Sandeep Awasthi.The boy’s father, Jagdish Beniwal, had lodged an FIR in March 2008 at Kaka Deo police station regarding the mysterious disappearance of his son, Anuj Beniwal. In his complaint, he said that Anuj had gone to school to appear for an examination on March 17 but did not return home.He also raised suspicion about one of his former employees, Amit Dixit, who had been dismissed from service. Police investigation later revealed that Amit Dixit had kidnapped Anuj and sold him to the Santlal gang of Jalaun.The gang was allegedly involved in kidnapping and demanding ransom from victims’ families. Police rescued the boy 37 days later after conducting an encounter operation against the gang members.Police also arrested gang members Munna Singh, Kapil Tiwari and Lalla Sen alias Shyamji.During questioning, the accused revealed the names of Amit Dixit and four other men who had allegedly planned the kidnapping for ransom.
