Two men get 10 years' jail for robbing man of Rs 500 in 2017

Gurugram: The district court in Gurugram has sentenced two men to rigorous imprisonment of 10 years and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each for allegedly attacking a man with sticks and robbing him of Rs 500 in 2017. The convicts, Anoop Sharma alias Ramphal, 28, and Kuldeep, 22, both residents of IMT Manesar, were held guilty for the offence under sections 379-B, 420, 205 of the IPC.

The victim, Rajesh Kumar, a native of Rohtas, Bihar, was returning from duty to his rented room in Sector 3, Manesar around 1:15 am on July 23, 2017, and had reached Bas Village Chowk when two men, armed with sticks, intercepted and beat him up. The accused men took the victim's voter ID card and snatched Rs 500 from his trouser pocket. Two policemen, who were on patrol, heard the commotion and arrested the accused men. After a rise in incidents of snatching in Haryana, the state government had added two clauses (379 A and 379 B), defining snatching as a non-bailable offence, which will attract rigorous imprisonment for 10 to 14 years and a fine of Rs 25,000.

Even though there are claims by Gurugram police that incidents of snatchings have reduced, two incidents on an average are reported daily from the city. The incident occurred despite the fact that snatching is a non-bailable offence in Haryana in which conviction can lead to five to 10 years of imprisonment.

One of the biggest impediments is the lack of filing the FIR in most of the cases to pursue the case further. There are also problems in identifying the victims who normally target their victims in groups.

Recently, a person who was accused of stealing the phone from the women was let off by the court due to lack of evidence. What seems to be a worrying factor in these cases is that most of the criminals who start of criminal activities like snatchings are not deterred even when they are held by the police.

"Most of the culprits continue to indulge in these activities and progress toward becoming more sinister criminals who then commit burglaries, kidnappings and murder. Snatching is a stepping stone for them to enter into big crime," said a police official from Gurugram police.