Delhi resident walks free in robbery case

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 18

A local court today acquitted a Delhi resident in a robbery case.

Afroj Alam (29), a resident of Delhi, was booked under Section 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the IPC on the complaint of Siraj (17), a resident of Sector 18.

The complainant stated that he went to deposit Rs 20,000 in the Sector 19 branch of the PNB along with his nephew on October 16, 2017. A man came to the bank and asked him to fill his form. After filling the form, the man pulled out a knife from his pocket and threatened to stab him if he raised the alarm and asked him to come out of the bank. The accused took him to the back lane of the houses outside the bank and took away Rs 20,000 from him and fled from the spot.

The police collected the CCTV footage from the bank, but could not trace the accused.

However, the accused was arrested in a case registered under Sections 379 and 420 of the IPC on May 15, 2018. Siraj recognised Afroj in the police custody on May 16. Afroj told the police that he had spent the money on his household needs and forget the knife wrapped in a newspaper under the seat of a Haryana Roadway bus and did not note down the number of the bus. The police arrested the accused in the case on May 18, 2018.

The defence counsel said Afroj was falsely implicated in the case and the police had failed to recover the looted money and the form used for filling the amount. The court acquitted Afroj in the absence of evidence.