Minors from poor families in custody for stealing 'jamuns'

The poor families of two minors and a 19-year old youth, who landed up in judicial custody last week for stealing 'jamuns' (black plum fruit) from the Faridkot mini-secretariat complex, have been forced to furnish personal security bonds to get them released.

The minors, police officers in Faridkot said on Tuesday, were released on bail after their families furnished personal security bonds.

But that happened only after the two spent four days in judicial custody at a juvenile home and the youth cooled his heels in a prison.

The incident took place on July 9 in Faridkot town which is 225 km from Chandigarh.

"The only offence of these boys was that they plucked jamuns from the trees at the court complex. They were accused of stealing and booked following a complaint of the court complex guard," Bhudan Das, a migrant labourer and father of one of the minors, said.

The court guard, in his complaint to the police, said the jamun trees inside the court complex had been given on lease and plucking the fruit without permission was not allowed.

However, families of the boys maintained that they did not know that plucking jamuns from the complex was an offence.