Kathmandu, September 5

Jail is no deterrent to habitual criminals. In fact, for most of such criminals, jail is like a second home.

For instance, take Ram Mainali, 28, of Makwanpur, who was arrested from Gongabu yesterday on the charge of robbing Nawaraj Sharma of Tinchuli, Kathmandu of Rs 90,000 and a gold ring weighing half tola on January 4 last year. Earlier, he was arrested on the charge of theft in the capital and released on Rs 25,000 bail in 2013.

On July 20, police busted a gang of serial burglars and arrested four suspects, including Phurba Sherpa, 20, of Sindhupalchowk. Sherpa was convicted of theft by Sindhupalchowk District Court and jailed for a month. He, however, had managed to escape the prison amid chaos of the April 25 earthquake.

Police rounded up eight persons, who were allegedly involved in stealing laptops and purchasing stolen goods, during three separate anti-theft operations carried out in the capital on June 16. Of them Tej Bahadur Magar aka Kumar Thapa, 32, of Nuwakot, was held with 33 Dell laptops that he had stolen from Chelsea Education Centre, Tokha. He turned out to be a repeat offender as he was released from jail in 2011 after serving eight years for two separate robberies in Matatirtha and Kirtipur.

On June 21, police arrested six persons with two unlicensed firearms from various places of Kathmandu for hatching a robbery plot, said police. Sunil Tamang, 19, of Kathmandu, one among them, was released from jail after serving term for motorcycle theft last year. According to a recent statistics by the Metropolitan Police Office, as many as 286 cases of property crimes were reported last fiscal year and police had arrested more than 130 suspects. A police official informed that at least 15 per cent of the burglars were repeat offenders, thanks to the lenient punishment for thieves.

Such criminals walk free after serving a maximum of two years in jail, although they can be sentenced for six years because day and night are counted as two days.