Seven accused of abducting a teen aged girl for a ransom of Rs.200000 ($50000), while going to college in her car with her nephew and a friend, were sentenced to prison for life by an additional sessions court at Barasat under Calcutta metropolis on September 20, 2008. The accused were slapped a further penalty of Rs.3000 each.
While delivering the judgment the Judge Samaresh Prosad Choudhary said, “The act (of abduction) was desperate and the crime they committed rocked the civil society…”
The story is that on the morning of October 4, 2005, Roma Jhawar was going to college in her Tata Indica car along with her nephew and another friend. She was barely out on road from her Salt Lake residence, when a Maruti car blocked the passage of her car hardly 50 meters from her house. The abductors pulled out Roma and put her in their car threatening her with revolver and later handed her over to Gunjan Ghose, the prime accused in the case.
Gunjan took her in his car to one of his acquaintance in Sodepur also under Calcutta metropolis. The same evening Gunjan demanded Rs.200000 from Roma’s family over his cell phone, which was delivered by the family at the designated place asked for by Gunjan at the wee hours of next day.
Police cracked the case by tapping and tracking the cell phone of Roma’s elder brother while Gunjan was negotiating for ransom. The home secretary of Bengal was also a witness in the case as he ordered investigators to tap the phones of the accused Gunjan.
The accused sentenced were Gunjan Ghose, Ramchandra Singh, the driver of Jhawar’s family who tipped off Gunjan about Roma’s movements, Munna Shaw, Dinesh Yadaw, Mukesh Singh and Sukumar Mondal, the driver of the car in which Roma was abducted.
Baby faced Gunjan broke down in court minutes before pronouncement of judgment and told the judge, “I am the only son and there is no one to take care of my mother. Sir, please consider this.” However Gunjan has three murder cases against him including that of one of the abductors whom he killed after a quarrel over ransom money.
Non of the family members of Roma were present in court. Roma was leading a happy married life in Mumbai.