The recent killing of Khandaker Abu Talha, a student of Daffodil University student who protested against muggers trying to rob a pedestrian, has brought to the limelight how easy it is for muggers to slip through the legal system and become repeat offenders. The Daily Star has learnt that nearly nine out of 10 muggers who got caught between January and June of this year managed to post bail and the cases against them fall through easily due to non-cooperation of both witnesses and victims. 

According to former court officials, witnesses often fail to turn up at the court during the hearing of a case. Why are witnesses so reluctant to appear? It is because there is little protection for witnesses from violence by the accused or their cohorts.

The act of mugging falls into a grey area in our law, i.e. there is no legal definition of mugging. If someone's valuables are snatched away forcibly by armed perpetrators then the incident is recorded as robbery under Section 392. So the court proceedings that follow fall under the act of robbery and not mugging. However, mugging often takes place in the street by criminals who do not usually openly display arms to their victims. Moreover, the lengthy legal procedures are often not deemed to be worth the trouble of reporting the crime. 

The ambiguity regarding how to treat incidents of mugging, allows for muggers' legal representatives to get them out of jail. There should be a specific provision in the law on mugging so that these criminals cannot slip through the system so easily.