Considering Money Constraints, Man Let Off with Rs 2,000 Fine for 'Assaulting Cop'

Acknowledging the mental distress of those working in private employment, a Delhi court on Thursday passed a lenient sentence, imposing only a fine of Rs 2,000 on a man who was held for assaulting a police officer and fleeing with his vehicle.

The accused Naveen Kumar was convicted under Sections 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code however while awarding a punishment Metropolitan Magistrate Dev Chaudhary imposed a fine of only Rs 2,000 as against a prison sentence of two years.

The counsel for the convict appealed to the court to pass a lenient sentence considering the fact that his client was a poor person, who has an eight-month-old daughter and a three-year-old son. He further added that the convict is a truck driver, who is the sole earning member of the family and thus the court should release him on grounds that there were no previous convictions against him.

While hearing the case the court observed that the convict had assaulted an on-duty police official, who had issued him a ticket for violating the law, and instead of obeying the police official, the convict in brazen disregard of the law assaulted the police officer and ran away with his vehicle.

The court then dismissed the application filed by the defense counsel to release the convict on grounds that the accused had no regard for the law of the land but it also observed that imposing imprisonment would also be harsh, keeping in view the family and financial condition of the convict.

“Further, on account of Covid-19, citizens, particularly in private employment, are in great distress and even superior Courts have emphasized that there is need to decongest prisons,” the court said in its judgment.

The public prosecutor appearing for the state argued that the convict should be given a maximum punishment so as to send a message to society any obstruction in the work of a public servant will be dealt with strictly. To which the court argued that the theory focuses on rehabilitating the offender rather than punishing him in a retributive sense of justice.

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