New Delhi: A fast track court has sent seven persons, including a Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable, to jail after upholding their conviction for stealing railway property worth over Rs 1 lakh in 1987.
“The appellants viz Chhotey Lal, Ram Avtar, Meghraj, Surender Kumar, Jitender Kumar, Ramesh Kumar and SP Srivastava are hereby ordered to be taken into custody,” Additional Sessions Judge-Fast Track Court Kaveri Baweja said, upholding their conviction and varying jail term for the theft.
Interestingly, the prosecution was able to secure the conviction of all seven by preserving the seized case property – the stolen cartons of ball bearings from railway godown, for all these years, in good condition, as evidence of theft. The seven convicts were sent to jail after the judge dismissed their appeals against the November 2010 order of the trial court, which had held them guilt of stealing ball bearings.
While Srivastava, Megh Raj, Surender, Jitender and Ramesh were sentenced to two years in jail with a fine of Rs 10,000 each, Ram Avtar and Chhotey were handed one year jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 each under the Railway Property Act.
As per the prosecution, the accused were nabbed by the RPF personnel following a tip-off to them about a possible theft of railway property in progress from its Inland Container Depot at Y-Complex, Pragati Maidan here. (PTI)
