7-year jail for four men who robbed a home-alone woman in Chandigarh’s Sector 27
The ultimate goal and purpose of sentence ought to be deterrent or reformative, remarked the Chandigarh court of additional district and sessions judge Dr Rajneesh while handing out the sentence
Over two years after three men robbed a home alone 27-year-old woman of ₹6 lakh after breaking into her house in Sector 27 in September 2021, a local court has awarded them seven years in jail.
“The ultimate goal and purpose of sentence ought to be deterrent or reformative. The determination and awarding of adequate sentence commensurate with the gravity of the offence is judicial obligation. Every perpetrator of a gruesome crime of such kind should be punished severally and deterrently,” remarked the court of additional district and sessions judge Dr Rajneesh while handing out the sentence.
The convicts, Prem, Sunil Kumar, Arjun and Arjun Shresth, all from Mohali, were also fined ₹50,000 each.
They were convicted under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) , 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
In her statement to police, the victim had stated that on August 30, 2021, four men had delivered furniture that she had ordered earlier that month from Rama Industries, Mohali.
A week later, on the afternoon of September 7, she had kept the main door open for her maid. Meanwhile, three masked men forcibly entered her house.
Restraining her, one of them asked her not to shout and another brought a knife from her kitchen. They threatened her to give them all her cash, ATM card and other valuable articles, failing which she would be killed, she had alleged.
Later, one of the robbers removed his headgear and she recognised him as one of the men who had unloaded furniture at her house.
As the robbers started searching her house, she bolted her room’s door from the inside and locked herself in the bathroom, taking along ₹6 lakh cash kept in the house.
But one of the robbers proceeded to cut the mesh window of the bathroom window, while she kept screaming for help. She then threw the cash out, praying to be spared, and the accused after collecting the money jumped off the house’s back wall.
In court, public prosecutor JP Singh argued that the stolen articles were recovered from the possession of the accused, whereas the defence argued that all four had been falsely implicated in the case.
But the court convicted all accused, while stating, “In the instant case, taking undue advantage of her staying alone, the accused persons victimised a young working woman and committed the aforesaid offences at her residence by terrorising her.”
“Therefore, no ground is made out to award any kind of mild punishment than prescribed in the statute. In order to save society, such crimes are liable to be handled with an iron hand by awarding severest punishment as prescribed by the law,” said the court while awarding a seven-year jail sentence.
