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Desh Deepak Kumar Vihangam @ Deepak Kumar vs The State of Bihar

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 278Decided 8 Mar 2022
Criminal Appeal Nos. 674-675, 683 and 1714-1715 of 2011
Sanjiv Khanna · Bela M. Trivedi

Background

Dr. Shashi Kumar Sinha and his driver were kidnapped for ransom in Bihar in February 2006; the family eventually paid Rs. 12 lakh in ransom before the victims were rescued by police based on leads from an arrested suspect, Deepak Kumar. Six people were convicted by the trial court under Sections 364A (kidnapping for ransom) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and the Patna High Court upheld their convictions. Several of the convicts (Deepak Kumar, Bimlesh Kumar Singh, Madan Prasad Thathera, Kanhaiya Lal, Ramjee Prajapati, and Abhay Kumar) appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the evidence separately for each appellant. It upheld the convictions of Deepak Kumar, Bimlesh Kumar Singh, and Madan Prasad Thathera, finding the evidence (including eyewitness identification, ransom payment tracing, and recovered cash bearing the complainant's signatures) sufficiently established their guilt. However, for Kanhaiya Lal (the motorcycle driver who was with Deepak Kumar when both were detained) and for Ramjee Prajapati and his son Abhay Kumar (a compounder near the victim's clinic and his son), the Court found the prosecution's evidence fell short of the standard required to prove criminal conspiracy: mere suspicious association or circumstantial links, without a clear, irresistible inference of an agreement to commit the crime, is not enough. Applying settled law on conspiracy (requiring a genuine "meeting of minds" provable by evidence excluding other reasonable explanations), the Court gave these three the benefit of the doubt and acquitted them, while directing Deepak Kumar to surrender to serve his life sentence.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction for criminal conspiracy cannot rest on mere suspicion, proximity to an accused, or unexplained circumstances. The prosecution must produce evidence pointing conclusively and irresistibly to an actual agreement between the accused to commit the offence, with no other reasonable explanation for the circumstances.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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