A man was sent to seven years in jail for robbing a person and disfiguring his face, with the court here observing that it was awarding minimum sentence as the convict's family needed him but underscored that "poverty is not a licence to commit a crime".
The court, in its judgment, observed that no person should be sentenced to any harsh punishment disproportionate to the crime. At the same time, any undue sympathy to the offender would send a wrong signal to the society.
The court, which contemplated to award "harsh sentence" to 30-year-old convict Habib, gave minimum punishment for the offence considering the needs of his family.
"The court was contemplating to sentence the convict to harsh sentence as he disfigured the face of a young person. The face of a person is an interface to the society. The trauma of the injured cannot be explained as he would be facing the society with disfigured face for his entire life. Poverty is not a licence to commit crime.
"There are millions of people in this country who are poor and working very hard to make their both ends meet. The convict has responsibility of his family and he chose the path of crime to fulfill his obligation to his family. The crime committed by the convict is very serious. However, keeping in view, the need of the convict by his family, the court is sentencing him to the minimum sentence," Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Sharma said.
The court held the convict, a resident of Shastri Park in north east Delhi, guilty under sections 392 (punishment for robbery), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) and 397 (robbery with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the IPC. He was also slapped with a fine of Rs 15,000.
According to the police, the incident occurred in August 2015, when victims Ravi and his cousin Vishesh deboarded a bus at Welcome area in north east Delhi and the two accused, Habib and Rustam, slapped them and robbed Vishesh of Rs 6,000.
When Ravi resisted, the accused hit him with a sharp object on his cheek and while Rustam fled the spot, Habib was caught by the victims who handed them over to police, it said.
Rustam remained absconding during the trial of the case.
During the trial, Habib denied the allegations levelled against him.
He sought a lenient view in sentencing saying he has to maintain his family and any jail term would cause hardship to it.
