The Delhi High Court has set aside the convictions of two men under Section 368 of the Indian Penal Code, holding that concealment or confinement alone is insufficient without proof that the accused knew the person had been kidnapped or abducted.
Knowledge is an essential element of the offence and must be established through reliable evidence, not inferred merely from the victim’s presence or restriction. The prosecution failed to prove that mental element against the appellants.
The judgment reinforces a basic principle of criminal liability: conduct matching part of an offence cannot sustain conviction when the required state of mind remains unproved. Suspicion surrounding custody cannot substitute for evidence of awareness of the underlying kidnapping.
