Delhi Court Denies Bail To Woman Accused Of Stealing Bags From Delhi High Court Complex

A Delhi Court yesterday denied bail to a woman accused of stealing bags and other valuables articles from outside the courtrooms of Delhi High Court.

Duty MM Paras Dalal of Patiala House Courts remanded the woman, who was produced after one day police custody, to judicial custody till August 26.

“Having considered the seriousness of the allegations, this court deems it appropriate to commit the accused to judicial custody since the apprehension of the IO is true that once released on bail, the accused may abscond and even threatened the witness or indulge in similar offence vide same modus operandi,” the court observed.

The judge was not convinced with the accused’s submission that the woman seen in a CCTV footage was not her.

“The application for bail of the accused is accordingly rejected. Accused is sent to JC till 26.08.2023 and be produced before concerned MM/Duty MM,” the court said.

The FIR was recently registered by a law intern alleging that the accused woman stole her bag and other valuable articles including laptop and iPad from outside a Delhi High Court courtroom.

While the accused sought bail on the ground that there was no recovery of stolen property and non compliance of section 41A CrPC, the prosecution argued that the woman was habitual of picking up bags from outside the High Court courtrooms.

The prosecution further contended that there was also apprehension that the woman may have been involved in two other such incidents.

It was also submitted that due to the actions of the accused woman, there was a fear in leaving the bags outside the courtrooms of the Delhi High Court among lawyers. It was also highlighted that there was a serious security lapse since the accused woman, who was not an advocate and did not have a valid lawyers ID, was seen in the court complex.

The investigating officer submitted before the court that the accused was non co-operative throughout the investigation, refused to join the investigation and even resisted the police officers.

It was also stated that the woman refused to share her details and failed to provide any identity proof of herself.

Considering the seriousness of the allegations, the court deemed it appropriate to remand the accused woman to judicial custody, observing that the apprehension of the IO that the woman may abscond once released on bail, was true.

Advocates Prabhav Ralli and Stuti Gupta appeared for the complainant.

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