KUALA LUMPUR: Two men have been sentenced to jail and whipping by the sessions court today on two counts of robbery and using a knife as a weapon last year.
The duo, who had robbed two e-hailing drivers, pleaded guilty pleaded guilty when the charges were read out.
Judge Mahyon Talib sentenced R. Nanthakumar, 33, and C. Komagan, 41 to three years of jail and two strokes of the cane.
He ordered the sentence to be carried out from the arrest date on Dec 11.
They were charged jointly with gang robbery against Ton Kwong Hong, 29, and made away with two mobile phones and cash of RM150.
They used a knife to threaten the victim and robbed him of items and cash worth almost RM2,000 in front of Flat San Peng, Dang Wangi at 12.50pm on Dec 2.
They were also accused of repeating the same crime towards another e-hailing driver Mohamad Aniff Azahari Hamidi, 29.
They robbed the victim of his wallet, two mobile phones as well as RM400 in cash. The items were valued at RM1,000.
The robber had occurred at the car park of a hotel in Jalan Pudu at 2:20pm on Dec 4.
For both the offences, they were charged under Section 395/397 of the Penal Code which allocates for a maximum of 20 years jail and can be fined or whipped.
Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Siti Hajar Mohd Ashif asked the court for a deterrent sentence as robbery was becoming more rampant.
However, the two accused who were unrepresented pleaded for a lighter sentence as they were the sole bread winner for their families.
According to the facts of the case the two men impersonated as customers and used an e-hailing app to book the rides.
Once they got into the car, they robbed the drivers of his valuables.
