A Delhi court has modified a 39- year-old man's jail term from three years to 16 months, which he has already undergone, in a theft case saying his mere involvement in 22 similar cases without the offence having been proved against him cannot be taken adversely against him.
Partly allowing the appeal of Sanjay, who had challenged his conviction and jail term awarded by a trial court, Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Sharma took a lenient view saying he was young and the sole bread earner in his family.
"As rightly submitted by the appellant, he has a family to which he is the only support and mere involvement in other cases without the offence having been proved against him, can't be taken adversely against him," the judge said.
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The court, which upheld his conviction in the case, said the factum of theft and recovery of the stolen motorcycle was duly proved and "order of conviction does not suffer from any irregularity, infirmity or incorrectness".
Sanjay claimed in his appeal that he was falsely implicated by the police in this case and several others but he had been found guilty only in this one.
He had also sought leniency claiming that he belonged to a poor family and has to support his family.
According to the complaint by Sandeep Kapoor, on May 17, 2013, his black coloured Bajaj Pulsar bike was allegedly stolen late at night when he had parked it outside district court in Saket.
Sanjay was arrested by police for the offence under section 411 (dishonestly possessing stolen property) of the IPC and the bike was recovered at his behest.
