Bicycle thief suffers 9 years of trial, gets 5 months in jail

A man facing trial for over nine years for trying to rob a person of his bicycle has been held guilty of the crime, but was let off with a sentence of over five months in jail, which he had already undergone during the trial.

Metropolitan Magistrate Jagminder Singh let off 50-year-old Om Parkash, a Rajasthan native, showing leniency to him as he was poor and had apologised for his crime.

“The convict is a poor person and has apologised for his guilt. Under reformative theories of punishment, a lenient view is taken against the convict,” the court said.

“Om Parkash is sentenced in this case with imprisonment for the period that he had already undergone during his custody for the offence under section 392 (punishment for robbery) of the Indian Penal Code,” said Metropolitan Magistrate Singh.

Pleading for leniency, Parkash’s counsel told the court that the convict had remained in custody for five months and 13 days.

“He is so poor that when he was granted bail he could not arrange a surety and despite bail orders, he remained in custody for four more months.

Then he was released on a personal bond,” the counsel said, adding that he had also apologised for his crime.

The case against Om Praksah was lodged on a complaint by Bihar native Vinod Goswami, who had accused him of trying to steal his cycle parked outside his house on June 4, 2003.

He said as he saw him cycling away and he gave him a chase and caught hold of him, following which he attacked him with a screwdriver. But he was overpowered by neighbours, who came to the rescue hearing the commotion.