Rights of victim, offender must be considered equally: Court

Rights of a victim should be equally considered with that of an offender at the time of awarding punishment, a Delhi court has said while sentencing three men to varying jail terms in a robbery case.
Additional Sessions Judge Sukhvinder Kaur awarded seven years jail term to convict Naresh and five years imprisonment each to Pradeep and Gaurav, saying they do not deserve any leniency.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 7,000 each on the three Delhi residents who robbed two persons at knife point.
"The court must not only keep in view the rights of the criminal but also the rights of the victim of the crime and the society at large while considering the imposition of appropriate punishment," the court said.

The judge said, "The convicts had committed two robberies on the same night at knife point resulting into injuries to the victims. I am of the considered view that the convicts do not deserve any leniency."
The court relied on the testimonies of the victims, saying they remained "unequivocal", "unambiguous" and "unchallenged" and that there was no reason to disbelieve their version.

According to the prosecution, the men robbed Saurabh and Hritvik of their mobile phones, money and a wrist watch at knife point on a winter night in December 2012.
When the victims resisted, the accused assaulted them and one of them stabbed Saurabh in his abdomen and injured his hand, it had said.

The victims raised an alarm and the men were nabbed by the public at the spot and were handed over to the police.
During the trial, they claimed innocence and said they were falsely implicated in the case.