A Malegaon Court in Nasik has found an auto rickshaw guilty of voluntarily causing hurt in a case of road rage. It has sentenced him to plant two trees and offer namaz five times a day. The condition was laid down by the court for the accused to avoid undergoing imprisonment..
Malegaon Court sentences autorickshaw driver to plant two trees and offer namaz five times a day
Rauf Khan Umar Khan an autorickshaw driver’s auto had hit a stationary bike in a narrow lane of the Malegaon in 2010. After the complainant protested and questioned Khan, he was assaulted by him. Later was khan was booked under sections 323 (voluntary causing hurt), 325 (voluntary causing grievous hurt), 504 (International insult to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
The district magistrate held khan of guilty under IPC Section 323. However, he was acquitted under remaining offences. However, Khan was acquitted without imprisonment and fine, on the condition that he complies with the orders passed by the magistrate.
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Malegaon District Magistrate invokes Section 3 of Probation of Offenders Act,1958
Malegoan District Magistrate, Tejwant Sandhu had opined that Section 3 of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, granted power to a magistrate to release a convict after admonition and appropriate warning, so that he does not commit and repeat the offence. However, the court also reasoned that the convict remembers the warning and his conviction, so that he does not repeat it,
“According to me, giving appropriate warning means to give an understanding that the crime has been committed, the accused has been proven guilty and he remembers the same so that he does not repeat the offence again,”
During the hearing , Khan was ordered to plant two trees in the premises of Sonapura Masjid, where the crime was committed ,and care for the trees. Furthermore, Khan had also confessed during the hearing that despite being a man who follows Islamic faith, he was not offering regular namaz five times a day, for the next 21 days, regularly.
The magistrate has also concluded that these two directions fall within the ambit of Section 3 of the 1958 Act, and hence was an appropriate warning.
