Now, snatching a non-bailable crime

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 17

Snatching has now become a non-bailable offence in the city and can invite a rigorous sentence up to 14 years as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has extended the remaining part of the anti-snatching law of Haryana to the UT.

While extending the Act on May 29 this year, the MHA had extended only one part of the Act — the Indian Penal Code (Haryana Amendment) Act, 2014, to the UT, which made it “ineffective”.

The ministry issued a gazette notification under Section 87 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966. However, now the MHA, in a notification issued on December 16, has also extended the CrPC (Haryana Amendment) Act, 2014, to the city after the issue was raised by advocate Hemant Kumar before the ministry.

Hemant Kumar said while issuing the notification earlier, the MHA had not extended the CrPC (Haryana Amendment) Act, 2014, to Chandigarh, which made the law incomplete. While the IPC is a substantive law, the CrPC is a procedural law. The CrPC (Haryana Amendment) Act classifies two Sections in the IPC on snatching as cognisable, non-bailable and triable by the sessions court.

He said due to the lapse, all snatchers were booked under old laws. Haryana is the first state to make snatching a crime that is punishable with a maximum of 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Haryana added two new Clauses to Section 379 of the IPC to strengthen the existing law.

The new Clauses came into force on October 9, 2014.

By adding Clauses 379A and 379B, the state government officially defined snatching as a non-bailable crime. The trials in snatching cases will now be conducted in the sessions courts instead of judicial magistrate courts. Section 379 (theft) of the IPC carries a maximum punishment of three years or a fine or both. According to Section 379A (snatching), a convict will be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term that is not less than five years, but which may extend up to 10 years, along with a fine of Rs 25,000.

Section 379B (snatching and use of force) allows a convict to be punished with rigorous imprisonment not less than 10 years, which may extend up to 14 years with a fine of Rs 25,000. The Administration sent the proposal for the implementation of the Haryana Act after it found it tough to deal with snatchers.