Four youths, who robbed a photographer of his belongings including camera, cell phone and cash at knife point, have been awarded varying jail terms of seven to five years by a Delhi court which expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the city.
The court observed that in the recent past, Delhi has been experiencing a spurt in incidents of snatching, robbery, dacoity, murder and other kinds of crime.
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau convicted and sentenced Krishnamurthy (27) to seven years rigorous jail and Sumit (20), Mohd. Shankar (32), and Amit Gujjar (21), to five years imprisonment.
While Krishnamurthy was held guilty for the offence of robbery with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt, the other three were convicted for robbery.
The court imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Krishnamurthy and Rs 5,000 each on Sumit, Shankar and Amit.
“The deteriorating law and order problem of the city is a matter of serious concern and immediate steps are required to be taken at all levels for ensuring security and safety of the citizens. Instances of young persons getting involved in criminal activities of robbing innocent persons by putting them under threat of death, are also on rise.
“Criminals are unhesitatingly and indiscriminately using dangerous firearms on helpless victims who may or not offer any resistance thereby spreading terror in the society and adversely affecting social order and the faith of people in the system,” the judge said.
According to police, the accused persons in furtherance of their common intention had robbed Sandeep Sehgal of his camera, its lens, batteries, memory cards, flash, wallet containing Rs 2,000, mobile phone and some documents. During the crime, Krishnamurthy had used a knife also.
Two other persons were also accused in the case but they had compounded the offence with complainant Sehgal.
The incident took place when Sehgal, a professional photographer, and his assistant Sharvan Kumar were returning from a farm house in Gurgaon in his car on November 18, 2010 late night after attending a marriage function. When they reached Punjabi Bagh Flyover, Sehgal’s car struck a divider and they got down and noticed that the front tyre of the car was deflated and other parts were damaged.
Police said suddenly three-four motorcycle-borne youths stopped near the car and asked Sehgal as to what had happened.
Thereafter, one of those youths showed a knife to Sehgal and punched him and asked him to hand over all his belongings and took away his camera kit, mobile phone and wallet.
They abused the victims and sped away on their motorcycles, the police said. Sehgal informed the police by using the mobile phone of a cyclist.
A case was registered at Saraswati Vihar Police Station and all the accused were arrested.
The court noted that Krishnamurthy, Sumit and Shankar were involved various criminal cases.
It also made it clear that the sentence in this case will run consecutively to the jail term awarded to the convicts in other cases.
“The manner in which the offence has been committed shows that the convicts are desperadoes who have no respect for law and legal process of this country and they have an impression that perhaps the legal system of this country is incompetent to hold them back for their illegal activities,” it said.
(Source: PTI)
