Indian-origin man in Singapore jailed for daylight robbery at jewelry shop
Singapore: An Indian-origin man was on Thursday sentenced to over three years imprisonment and six strokes of the cane for masterminding a daylight robbery at a jewelry shop in Singapore.
M Jegatheesh, 28, admitted to robbing gold jewelry worth 119,000 Singapore dollars (USD 88,167) with two other men, choosing to target the shop in Ang Mo Kio Avenue as it looked old and its owners were elderly.
The court heard that Jegatheesh was a Gojek (private taxi) driver at the time of the offense. His co-accused, Veeramani Subran Das, was a Grab (also a private taxi) driver then, while the third accused, 32-year-old Sharavindran, was unemployed. They are also of Indian-origin.
Jegatheesh planned to use his Honda Civic along with a Toyota Vellfire belonging to Veeramani.
On August 13, 2019, the three men met and Jegatheesh told the rest of his plan to rob the shop the next day.
He targeted the place as it looked old and he thought it would not have any alarms installed. He also thought that the elderly owners would not be able to put up resistance.
Veeramani agreed to play the role of the getaway driver and to transport the gold to Sharavindran, who was asked to help sell it.
At about 2.40 PM on August 14, Veeramani drove the Toyota to the car park before Jegatheesh parked his car next to him. Veeramani then took over the wheel of the Honda, while Jegatheesh moved to the back seat and put on clothes including a long-sleeved shirt, a hoodie, gloves, and a helmet.
When Jegatheesh entered Hock Cheong Jade & Jewellery shop at 4.07 PM, the co-owners, aged 70 and 75, were there.
Jegatheesh tried to pull down the roller shutter at the entrance, before shouting "Don't move! Don't talk!" and jumping over the jewelry display counter.
The two co-owners pressed the hidden alarm buttons to notify an external security company. They did not confront Jegatheesh as they feared for their safety.
Jegatheesh swept the jewelry, including gold necklaces, bracelets, and pendants, into a duffel bag he brought with him.
Jegatheesh had been set for a trial but pleaded guilty on Thursday to one charge of conspiring to commit robbery, with two other charges taken into consideration.
For robbery, Jegatheesh could have been jailed between two and 10 years and given at least six strokes of the cane.
The prosecutor asked for three years and six months' jail and six strokes of the cane as Jegatheesh was the mastermind of the offense.
He said the robbery, which caused "wide public alarm", was committed by a group of people, and was elaborately planned and premeditated.
Jegatheesh, who had no lawyer, said the prosecutor cited past cases that involved violence, threats, or weapons, whereas he "did not even threaten anyone".
"I did not even say I want to kill anyone or kill the old man," the Channel quoted him as saying in the court.
He added that the gold was recovered with his help, and said he had decided to plead guilty after "deep consideration" and "deep thinking".
The driver of the getaway car, Veeramani, was sentenced earlier this month to three years' jail and six strokes of the cane for his role. The third accused, Sharavindran, will be sentenced at a later date.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
