KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Oct 31: The court of Additional District Judge-I, Rajendra Kumar Sinha convicted a 35-year-old man Vishwajit Pradhan in connection with a case of murder for ransom.
The accused Vishwajit Pradhan had abducted a middle-aged man, Dharmendra Singh from the Sakchi Thana area on February 10, 2022 and had murdered him for not paying Rs 50 lakhs as ransom.
The court will hold the hearing for the point of terms of sentence for the convict on November 3.
According to the prosecution, the murder victim Dharmendra Singh who was a resident of Kashidih Line No 5 in Sakchi had come out of his house to visit the Rahargora area in the suburban Govindpur area of the city.
While coming out of the house, the victim informed his wife that he was going to collect interest from his clients and would be back home in three hours. However, the victim did not return home despite an inordinate delay leading his son to give a call on his cellphone which was found switched off.
As the family members were waiting for Dharmendra’s return back home, the victim’s son got a call and the caller informed him that Dharmendra Singh was in his custody and if they wanted his safe return then they would have to pay Rs 50 lakh as ransom.
Moreover, the caller had also threatened that if the police were informed then Dharmendra Singh would be killed.
The anxious family members had no option but to inform the police after making abortive attempts to collect the ransom money. Eventually, during the investigation the police found Dharmendra Singh lying murdered inside an empty residential quarter at Agrico under the Sidhgora Thana area.
Later on, police established that it was Vishwajit Pradhan who had taken Dharmendra Singh hostage after kidnapping him from somewhere in Sakchi and murdered him. The police had arrested Pradhan a day after the case the mystery behind the murder was detected.
