Young Indian man gets 5 months for snatching cell phone

A Ho Chi Minh City court has sentenced a young Indian man who worked for a restaurant in the city to 4 months and 29 days in jail for snatching a mobile phone from a woman in March.

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20-year-old Arimeni Vasudevan Pramod was arrested on March 29 and had been detained until the trial.

Therefore, after the HCMC People’s Court handed down the sentence on Wednesday, he was immediately freed when the hearing ended, as his detention time was equal to the jail term of the verdict.

According to the case file, Arimeni arrived in Vietnam on February 8, 2013 and worked as a kitchen hand for a restaurant on Bui Vien Street, Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1, part of an area usually called the “Foreign Backpackers’ Quarter”.

Early on the morning of March 29, as Arimeni was walking down Do Quang Dau Street in the ward, he saw a woman standing in front of a house talking on the phone. He approached the woman and snatched the phone, a Samsung Galaxy Y, from her hand and ran away.

The victim, Tran Thi Hue, shouted for help and ran after Arimeni. Police officers who were patrolling nearby pursued and seized him on Cong Quynh Street.

The cell phone was valued at VND1,2 million (US$56).

At yesterday’s trial, Arimeni said his mobile phone had been stolen several days before he committed the offense.

That day, he wanted to talk to his family in India but he could not afford to make a call at a post office since he had yet to be paid by the restaurant.

Therefore, he decided to snatch the woman’s phone so that he had a means to talk with his family.

Since the defendant had no previous convictions and given that he was a poor worker, the court decided to gave him a slight sentence with a jail term equal to the time of his detention.