Caught with stolen jewellery, cash, landlord’s son gets jail

A local court has sentenced a man to undergo one year of rigorous imprisonment after convicting him under Section 411 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for dishonestly receiving or retaining stolen property.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the convict, Alok Kant. However, the court acquitted him of the charges punishable under Sections 452 (house trespass), 454 (lurking house trespass) and 380 (theft) of the IPC.

A case was registered against him on January 27, 2017, following a complaint by Amit Sharma, a tenant in the house of the convict’s father in Sector 37-A.

The complainant stated that he was living as a tenant in the house since October 2016. On January 17, 2017, he noticed some cash missing from an almirah at his house and installed hidden cameras in and around the house to catch the thief. On January 27, the CCTVs sent alerts on his phone while he was at office and he saw the accused taking things from the almirah. He recorded the video on his phone.

On reaching home, he reported the incident to the police. A case was registered and the accused arrested. Charges were framed against the accused, to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

After hearing the arguments of both parties, the court observed that the complainant did not catch the accused red handed and the CCTV footage could not be proved as per the Evidence Act. Hence, the accused was not guilty of offences of lurking house trespass and theft. However, the accused failed to justify the source of articles (jewellery and cash) recovered from him. Hence, Alok Kant was convicted of only the offence punishable under Section 411 of the IPC.