Man gets seven years RI for robbery of Rs 800

NEW DELHI: A court here today sentenced a man to seven years rigorous imprisonment for robbing a street vendor of Rs 800 at knife point last year.
    
Additional Sessions Bharat Parashar also imposed a fine of Rs 2000 on the convict Rajesh, holding him guilty under Section 392 (robbery) and 397 (robbery with an attempt to cause grievous hurt or death) of the IPC.
    
The court also awarded five-year prison term to his accomplice Shankar Mandal with a fine of Rs 2,000 for robbery.
    
Both the convicts were arrested on June 11, last year from Samaypur Badli in North-West Delhi after one Akbar Ali, who used to sell clothes on street, informed the police that they had robbed him of Rs 800 while threatening with a knife.

The police had recovered the knife and money from the accused. During the arguments, the counsel for accused, however, pointed out that the prosecution had not produced any independent public witness to corroborate their charges.
    
But the court rejected their arguments, saying, "no doubt, the Investigating Officer ought to have joined public witnesses but his mere failure in this regard cannot take away
the very ground beneath the prosecution story."
    
The complainant has specifically stated the role played by the two accused in the entire incident besides corroborating the prosecution story in all material aspects, the court added.
    
The prosecution produced as many as four witnesses to substantiate their charges against the convicts.