Govt tells HC it has sought changes in law on snatching

NEWDELHI: The AAP government has told the Delhi High Court that it has written to the Centre to consider amending the penal provisions to deal with the serious issue of chain snatching in the Capital.

A bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C Hari Shankar asked the ministry of home affairs to positively file a status report on the action taken by it on the letter written by the Delhi government.

Delhi government’s additional standing counsel Gautam Narayan informed the bench that Haryana and Punjab have made snatching a separate offence after amending the law. He said the Delhi government wrote to the MHA to take action on it but it had not received any response yet.

The court was hearing a petition by advocate Prashant Manchanda who alleged that chain snatching cases in the city have seen a six-fold rise leading to a ’fear psychosis’ in the minds of citizens as well as tourists who are also targeted.

The court, which listed the matter for hearing on August 1, noted that the petition raised a serious concern of the offence of chain snatching in Delhi.

During the hearing, the petitioner contended that Delhi Police was booking offenders of such crimes in a routine manner under milder provisions, which entail a punishment of only up to three years.

He said even without a specific offence under the law to make snatching a separate offence, the offenders could be booked under section 390 (robbery) of the IPC as it uses the word ‘fear of wrongful restraint’ and carries a jail term of up to 10 years.

The court had earlier issued notice to the Delhi government, police and the municipal corporations and sought their replies to the plea which also contended that various parks in the city were the ‘hubs’ of such crimes due to lack of vigilance.

The plea has claimed that on an average, there were 25 snatching cases every day in the Capital due to the ”absence of effective laws” and ”indifference” of the police, which book the offenders under the “trivial provisions” of theft instead of robbery or dacoity, even though weapons are used to commit such crimes.

“Many incidents of snatching entail serious wounds and also involve use of deadly weapons, leading to fatal injuries or death of the victims,” the petition has said.manchanda had earlier told the court that Haryana, recognising the seriousness of the problem, has made inclusions in the penal law IPC to make it harsher against snatching.

It had also said that in Maharashtra too, the punishment for snatching has been made stringent and in some cases, the Mumbai police has also invoked Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).