Observing that “the accused might be a victim of circumstances like poverty and bad company”, a Delhi court has reduced the one-year imprisonment to a man to the time he spent in judicial custody in a case of snatching ₹530 from a Government Railway Police (GRP) Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) in 2012.
The accused had snatched the money from the policeman while he was travelling in a train.
The accused was hanging by a pole near the railway track, while the victim was standing near the door of the train.
As the train slowed down, the accused pounced on the policeman’s T-shirt pocket, which contained the money and other important documents, tore it off and ran away with the contents.
The officer immediately jumped off the train and chased the accused along with a constable on patrol duty. The accused was caught.
Holding him guilty of the offence of theft, a Metropolitan Magistrate had sentenced him to one-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹2,000.
The accused later appealed against his conviction and sentence in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Kovai Venugopal, who upheld the conviction but reduced his sentence keeping in view his socio-economic background.
“After going through the entire material on record and statements of witnesses, I am of the opinion that there is no infirmity in the judgment of the trial court as far as the conviction of the accused for the offence punishable under Section 379 [theft] of the IPC is concerned,” the judge said, upholding his conviction.
Reducing his sentence, the judge added: “The accused was a young man of 23 years at the time of offence. [He] might be a victim of circumstances like poverty, bad company, etc. It is seen from the record that the accused has already spent 33 days in judicial custody, that is, from August 2, 2012, to September 7, 2012.”
“Considering the socio-economic condition of the accused, his aged mother and the fact that he is not involved in any other offence after the present one, the sentence of imprisonment is reduced to the period undergone and fine amount is reduced to ₹500,” the judge further said.
