'Every Sinner Has A Future': Karnataka High Court Reduces Auto Driver's Jail Term For Robbing Passenger, Fines ₹4 Lakh

The Karnataka High Court, while upholding the conviction of an auto-rickshaw driver who orchestrated the robbery of a gold chain from a female passenger back in 2012, has asked the convict to pay an enhanced compensation of Rs 4 lakhs to the victim woman.

The single judge bench of Justice V. Srishananda, however, reduced the driver's sentence to the 15 months already undergone in judicial custody. The court leaned towards adopting the 'reformative theory' and underscored the principle of 'hate the crime, and not the criminal' while doing so.

“This Court cannot lose sight of the fact that every sinner has a future and there is a scope of reformation in everybody's life. Court is also expected to keep in mind the celebrated principles in the criminal jurisprudence that the Courts are required to hate the crime and not the criminal”, the single judge observed.

The court added that the accused, as noted by the trial court, has no criminal antecedents, and he bears the responsibility of looking after his wife and children by driving an auto rickshaw.

Though the plea was for revision, the court ventured to treat it as an appeal after obtaining consent from both parties. Thereafter, the court upheld the conviction rendered by the trial court in its order.

“…the revision petition is pending since 2022 and at this distance of time, if the revision petitioner is directed to file a separate appeal and the same needs to be adjudicated on merits, it would result in further delay and also miscarriage of justice and therefore by consent of the parties, though the accused has filed the revision petition, same is taken for consideration as an appeal by consent of the parties”, the court reasoned.

However, the single judge bench opined that the accused was a young auto driver aged 18 years at the time of commission of the offence. He had already spent 15 months in judicial custody during the trial and appeal stages. Hence, the court deemed it fit to reduce the sentence as already undergone for the offence under 394 IPC [Causing hurt while committing Robbery] that he committed.

"Failure to pay the enhanced fine amount by the revision petitioner as aforesaid would result in automatic restoration of the order of imprisonment passed by the learned Judge in the First Appellate Court”, the court noted in the order.

The court has also asked the convicted to pay Rs 4,00,000/- in two equal instalments on or before 30.04.2026 and 31.05.2026 respectively.

In 2014, Tabrez Pasha, an auto rickshaw driver, was accused of robbing the gold chain of a woman passenger nearby Kolar. The accused incapacitated her and snatched away the chain while physically assaulting her, hence constituting the offences under Sections 392 and 394 of IPC. The victim's husband filed the complaint that led to the registration of the FIR. The stolen gold chain was recovered from the accused by the police.

The Trial Court acquitted Pasha under Section 394 of the IPC. The state filed an appeal before the Sessions Court. The Sessions Court, in 2021, convicted the accused and asked him to undergo 5 years rigorous imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 30,000/-. These orders paved way to the current revision petition.

The High Court upheld the conviction because the victim woman clearly identified Pasha and the robbed article was duly recovered from the rickshaw driver as per the seizure mahazar.

“…When these incriminatory materials were put to the accused, under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the accused failed to offer any explanation to those incriminatory materials, but denied all the incriminatory materials”, the court inferred that the first appellate court's order of conviction was legally sound.

The court also took note of the non-explanation by the accused about the alleged motive behind an investigating agency planting the gold chain in the rickshaw just to obtain a conviction.

The court opined that an appellate court has the leeway to fully re-appreciate trial evidence even in an appeal against acquittal, by relying on the apex court judgments in Chandrappa v. State of Karnataka (2007) and Babu v. State of Kerala (2010).

Accordingly, the court allowed the plea in part and ordered the return of trial court records for issuing a modified conviction warrant.

Case Title: Tabrez Pasha v. State of Karnataka

Case No.: CRL.RP No.826 of 2022

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