Court upholds jail term of two men for assaulting a bus driver

A Delhi court has upheld a three-month jail term for two men who were convicted for injuring and threatening a bus driver here in an over a decade-old-case, saying such "hooliganism" should be strongly deterred.
District and Sessions Judge Ina Malhotra dismissed the appeals of Sonu and Guru Dutt against a magisterial court order that had convicted them for the offences of voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation under the IPC.
"There is enough evidence adduced by the prosecution for the court to conclude and hold the accused guilty of the offences....
"Such type of hooliganism in society should be strongly deterred. Appeal dismissed. Order of conviction and sentence upheld," the judge said.

The court, while upholding the sentence of three months as awarded by the magistrate, rejected the contention of the convicts that there were contradictions in the testimony of the victim bus driver Rishipal regarding the time of incident.
"Minor discrepancies in the testimony of the witness in respect of the time of the incident cannot wipe out the incident nor does it entitle the accused to go scot-free," it said.

It rejected the contention that the bus conductor, who was an eye-witness and was also injured, was not examined, saying, "Notwithstanding the fact that other injured Sunil (conductor) was not examined, based on the testimony of the complainant alone, the accused were liable to be convicted."

According to prosecution, on the night of July 27, 2004, when the complainant Rishipal was driving a bus from Noida to Mehrauli, Sonu and Guru Dutt boarded the bus from Sarita Vihar here and started abusing and threatening the driver.
They snatched the keys from the ignition and assaulted Rishipal with a sharp weapon. When conductor Sunil Kumar came to his rescue, even he was injured, it said.
Rishipal sustained injuries in his stomach and back of his shoulder as a result of which he became unconscious and was admitted to AIIMS hospital, where his statement was recorded, it said.

The magisterial court had convicted Sonu and Guru Dutt for the offences punishable under sections 324(voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapon), 341(wrongful restraint) read with 34(common intention) of IPC and had sentenced them to three months imprisonment.