Saturday, March 19 2005 20:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Four years after the sensational kidnapping of a UAE-based NRI businessman, a Delhi court today (March 19, 2005) sentenced four persons to life imprisonment.

Special Judge Dinesh Dayal held Rakesh Saraha, Santosh Shankar Acharya, Kartik Subrahmanyam and Vipin Chaudhary guilty of kidnapping Abu Dhabi-based Keralite Thekkat Sidhique for whose release the abductors had demanded $ 700,000 as ransom.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 14,000 each on all the convicts.

Sidhique was kidnapped on March 11, 2001 and was rescued from his seven captors from a house in south Delhi's Sarvpriya Vihar a week later by the police team after an encounter in which three of them were killed.

The investigation of the case was conducted by a joint team of CBI and Delhi police.

Sidhique, Managing Director of Abu Dhabi-based firm Seven Star International Trading Centre, had travelled to Delhi for "business purposes" at the behest and allurement of the kidnappers who claimed to be "prosperous businessmen".

On his arrival in Delhi on March 11, Sidhique was received by Rakesh Saraha with a fake name Aman and taken to the South Delhi house where he was held hostage.

Police swung into action on a complaint to the CBI by victim's wife Rahmat Sidhiqui through the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi that her husband who had left for Kozhikode in Kerala had gone missing while on a business trip to Delhi.

After registering the case, CBI with the Special Cell of Delhi Police mounted a massive hunt for the kidnappers in Delhi and by tracking down the cell phones used by the abductors, raided the hideout and rescued Sidhiqui on March 18, 2001.

Three kidnappers, Virender Pant, Sanjay Khanna and Sunil Nathani were killed in the operation while the remaining four were arrested.

The four accused have been convicted for various offences under Indian Penal Code ranging from criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and causing grievous injury.