IPC on dacoity under scanner

Bhopal, Nov 7 (UNI) Whether involvement of at least five people was mandatory to register an offence of dacoity.

This was the subject of a brief debate in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly today as Minister of State for Home Nagendra Singh said a case of robbery was registered as the complainant reported the involvement of only three people in committing the offence.

Replying to Mr Gajraj Singh Sikarwar(BJP), who alleged in his call attention notice on dacoities at two houses in Morena town on the night of September 24 that the police had not taken serious note of the incidents, Mr Singh denied it and said investigation was being done seriously and section 302 IPC was added after a woman, Girija Devi, who was assaulted by the criminals, succumbed to injuries at the Agra hospital on October 3.

Mr Sikarwar alleged the police did not register a case of dacoity and treated it as ordinary loot. The criminals took away ornaments and cash worth Rs 5 lakh from the house of Dr Vinod Gupta after locking up the family members in a room, while they assaulted three women with rods at the adjoining house of Manoj Kumar Bindal.

The Minister admitted that offence of dacoity was not registered as only three criminals committed the crime, while it was mandatory under the Indian Penal Code about the involvement of five or more people. The police was seriously inquiring into the incident as the charge of loot was equal to dacoity, he added.

UNI SP 1545