ACLC chief proposes changes in law to curb vehicle crime

Karachi
As criminals arrested in vehicle snatching and theft manage to obtain in a month’s time and in some cases, are also granted pre-arrest bail before they are taken into custody, the Anti Car Lifting Cell has proposed amendments in the law concerned so that these cases could be reduced.
“These proposals have been presented to the departmental heads so that they can take up the issue with the relevant authorities,” ACLC SSP Irfan Ali Bahadur told The News on Sunday.
“Keeping in view the issue and sections related to these crimes, I consulted with lawyers and prepared the proposals. Then they were sent in the form of a letter to the departmental heads for discussion and helping in amending the law,” he added.
He said the main factor behind vehicular crime was the applied sections of the law in vehicular crimes that handed down minimum punishments, making acquirement of bail after and before arrest very easy.
“We arrest the same people several times but they end being released on bail or acquitted easily and return to snatching or stealing vehicles,” he explained.
“All our efforts are undone because of these reasons.”
Bahadur said the Pakistan Penal Code 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 needed to be amended.
He explained that there was a need for amending Section 103 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 as Section 103 (2a) followed the (2a) provision that did not apply to sections 381-A, 392, 395, 411, 420, 468, 471 of the PPC. These sections are for robbery, snatching, fraud and other crimes.
In Section 381, 381-A of the PPC, the imprisonment of seven years should be substituted with 14 years, and in Section 392, three should be replaced with 10.
Moreover, in Section 395 of the PPC, four years should be replaced with 10 years and and 10 with life imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs1 million should be added.
The SSP said that it had been noticed that many of criminals tampered with vehicles that were either snatched or stolen and a proposal was also made for making this a crime, if the intent was cheating or fraud, and the prison term for this should be 14 years and a fine of Rs1 million needed to be imposed.
He added that in order to achieve the desired results, besides amending these sections, a sufficient number of officers and government vehicles in accordance with the sanctioned strength should be provided to meet the shortage of staff.