Invoking the new stringent snatching law for the first time, Chandigarh Police have booked two yet unidentified bike-borne men for fleeing with the handbag and mobile phone of a 21-year-old girl in Sector 32.
The girl, identified as Dechen, who is studying in a local college and stays at a paying guest facility in Sector 32, was returning home from the neighbourhood market when the snatchers struck around 9pm on Sunday, said police.
The incident took place near the waterworks station adjacent to the ITBP quarters. A case was registered under Section 379A (whoever, with the intention to commit theft, suddenly or quickly or forcibly seizes or secures or grabs or takes away from any person or from his possession any moveable property, and makes or attempts to make escape with such property, is said to commit snatching) and 356 (use of criminal force to commit crime) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector 34 police station. Police are trying to ascertain the identity of the snatchers — who were wearing helmets and a black jacket — through CCTV footage.
Till now, Chandigarh Police used to book snatchers under Section 379 (theft) of the IPC, in which the maximum punishment is three years.
{{/usCountry}}Till now, Chandigarh Police used to book snatchers under Section 379 (theft) of the IPC, in which the maximum punishment is three years.
{{/usCountry}}On December 17, the ministry of home affairs, under Section 87 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, notified the extension of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Haryana Amendment) Act, 2014, to the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The two new sections are 379A (snatching) and 379B (snatching with hurt or wrongful restraint or fear of hurt).
If booked and convicted under the first, there is provision for rigorous imprisonment for five to 10 years. In the second case, it is 10 to 14 years.