Boy spends one year in jail for stealing Rs 200
NEW DELHI: On Thursday, a metropolitan magistrate convicted Shamsuddin Fakruddin of theft, making it the happiest day of his life. As his lawyer explained to him that the court had just declared him guilty, Shamsuddin's boyish face broke into a smile. He was finally free.
For 12 months now, Shamsuddin (19) has been lodged in Tihar Jail despite the fact that his alleged crime, that of stealing Rs 200, would usually carry a sentence of three months' imprisonment. After being denied bail once, he was granted bail three months ago, but did not have the Rs 10,000 in property needed for a bail bond.
Shamsuddin changed his initial not-guilty plea to a guilty plea when he learnt that his father had passed away two days ago. "I'll say I am guilty. I just want to get out. I just want to go home to my village," he whispered to his lawyer.
After migrating to Delhi four years ago from his village in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district on the border with Nepal, Shamsuddin sold vegetables at a street corner near Okhla mandi. On August 5 last year, Shamsuddin was picked up by the Amar Colony police on charges of taking a wallet containing Rs 200 and an ATM card from the pocket of a complainant.
Shamsuddin maintains that he did not commit any theft, and that the wallet in his pocket was his own. He was arrested and charged under sections 379 (theft) and 411 (dishonestly keeping stolen property) of the IPC, and sent to Tihar Jail for judicial custody. Boy jailed for a yr for .
Despite his alleged crime typically carrying a sentence of three months, Shamsuddin was first denied bail on February 26, 2011, because of the "seriousness" of his crime. He had by then already completed six months in judicial custody.
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