Himalaya Harbinger, Rudrapur Bureau
A lawyer in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra presented the closing arguments in a 17-year-old kidnapping case wherein he himself was the victim.
Agra’s Harsh Garg was abducted in February 2007. He grew up during the course of the trial, became a lawyer and presented the closing arguments with the prosecution in a special judge’s court in the city in June this year.
After the closing arguments, the court sentenced accused Guddan Kachhi, Rajesh Sharma, Rajkumar, Fateh Singh alias Chhigga, Amar Singh, Balveer, Ramprakash and Bhikam alias Bhikari to life imprisonment
Flashback to February 10, 2007, when one Avinash Garg of Kheragarh town filed the case with local police. The FIR said that Harsh Garh, then 7-year-old, was sitting with his father Ravi Garg at a local medical store, when around 7 pm that day, a four-wheeler vehicle with a Rajasthan registration number approached them.
The car stopped and Guddan Kachhi got down from the vehicle along with his accomplices and kidnapped Harsh, holding his father Ravi Garg, at gunpoint. When Ravi protested, he was shot at and injured by the miscreants, according to the FIR.
The kidnappers later demanded a ransom amount of Rs 55 lakh in lieu of Harsh’s safe return home. However, Harsh managed to escape on March 6, 2007 when two of the accused, Bheem Singh and Ram Prakash, were taking him away from the ravines to another place.
Both the accused chased him but fled the spot after seeing a police cordon. Later, the police arrested Guddan Kachhi, Rajkumar, Fateh Singh, Amar Singh, Balveer, Rajesh Sharma, Bheem Singh and Ram Prakash and sent them to jail.
The trial ensued with the arguments starting only in 2014 and ran through 2018 with the case fought by Harsh’s father Ravi, who is also a lawyer.
Harsh used to attend the hearings in court, and it was during the trial that he decided to become a lawyer himself.
After graduation, Harsh completed his LLB from Agra College in the year 2022 and got registered with the Bar Council the next year.
Harsh joined the prosecution team and delivered the final arguments himself that were heard in June 2024. On September 17, the Special-Judge court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment in the kidnapping case.
While eight of the 14 accused were awarded a life-term, four of them- Dalel Singh, Lakhan Singh, Rajendra and Ramesh- were acquitted due to lack of witnesses and evidence. Two of the other accused, identified as Bachchu and Niranjan, died during the trial.
Harsh is now preparing for the UP Provincial Civil Service Judicial Exam (PCS-J), which is an entry-level exam for law graduates to be appointed as subordinate judiciary members.
