Court upholds man's conviction for theft

A Delhi court has refused to set aside the conviction of a man for picking a woman's purse and stealing gold jewellery and cash, saying these offenders should not be enlarged as such crimes were growing alarmingly.

The court, however, modified his six month jail term to a period of 22 days he already spent behind bars, considering his clean antecedents.

"Such offences of theft are on rise and assuming alarming proportions and the cry of society is not to enlarge such convicts on probation," Additional Sessions Judge Gurvinder Pal Singh said.

According to the prosecution, on April 17, 2014, 40-year old Kamal Kishore picked the purse of the complainant on a busy road at Uttam Nagar in west Delhi and stole a small case containing 27 grams of gold jewellery articles and Rs 6,000 in cash.
 

By the time the woman realised about the theft, Kishore passed the case to his accomplice and tried to run away but was caught, it said.

A magisterial court had in 2016 held him guilty for the offence of theft under section 379 of the IPC and sentenced him to six month imprisonment and a fine of Rs 600.

Challenging the order, Kishore claimed the allegations levelled against him could not be proved as his accomplice was never arrested, nor were the stolen articles recovered.

The sessions court partly allowed his plea by refusing to set aside the conviction but modified the jail term, noting that he was the sole bread earner for his family and had remained in custody from April 17, 2014 till May 8 that year.