Robberies on the rise, need to be dealt with sternly: Court

Notinga drastic spurtin robberies in the capital, a Delhi court has sent two men behind bars for seven years for beating and robbing a man four years ago, sayingstrictsentenceisnecessary asa deterrentonanti-socialelements.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg refused to take a lenient view towards convicts Shiv Prakash and Rajan Babu and handed down the jail term to them for committing the offence under section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery).

The court was of the considered view that there was a drastic spurt in incidents of robbery and awarding of stern punishment was necessary to have a deterrent effect on anti- social elements in the society.
 

"Having regard to the circumstances of the case, nature/ gravity of offence and characterofboththeconvicts,theydo notdeservetobegivenbenefitofProbationofOffendersAct, 1958.Theyaresentencedtoundergo rigorousimprisonment forsevenyears," the court said while also imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 each on the convicts.

According to prosecution, late at night on October 1, 2012, victim Naval Kishore was going home on his bicycle when the duo stopped him and threatened him to hand over his belongings to them.

They snatched his mobile phone and Rs 4,000 from his pocket, it said, adding when the victim resisted he was beaten up and injured.

During the trial, the accused had pleaded not guilty and claimed they were falsely implicated.