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Chandigarh | Man gets 2-year rigorous imprisonment in fatal accident case
Two children Aziz, 6, and Shifa, 4, were admitted to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research after a car ran over them. Shifa was later declared dead. Complainant Sameena, mother of Aziz and Shifa’s aunt, was with the two at in a park opposite their house when the mishap took place
The court of additional sessions judge Jaibir Singh has awarded two years’ rigorous imprisonment to a man convicted in a fatal accident case, dating back to 2018.
Two children Aziz, 6, and Shifa, 4, were admitted to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research after a car ran over them. Shifa was later declared dead. Complainant Sameena, mother of Aziz and Shifa’s aunt, was with the two at in a park opposite their house when the mishap took place. She told the police the car was being driven rashly and ran over the kids who were near the road. The driver, who she recognised as her neighbour Jatinder Kumar, got out of the car briefly before escaping, she had said. She jotted down the number of the vehicle, a Mahindra XUV.
Based on her complaint, a case under Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304-A (death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at the Maloya police station.
Convict had claimed he was framed
Jatinder Kumar had claimed he was innocent and opted for trial.
The defence presented 14 witnesses who corroborated the complainant’s version while Kumar, in his statement, said he was being framed.
He said there had been no accident and that the children had sustained injuries after falling down the stairs. He said he had been called by neighbors to take the children to PGIMER. He also added that the vehicle belonged to one Sandeep Kumar who had given it to him to take the kids to the hospital.
The court observed that despite the prosecution examining 14 witnesses, the complainant and her sister-in-law Shivani were the star witnesses because they were eye witnesses and their statements are at variance.
The defence had argued that the complainant had stated that she was not in her senses and there is nothing on record to show that her statement was read back to her or if it can’t be relied upon. They argued that police had also delayed filing the FIR till 8:30 pm while the incident happened around 1:45pm. Police had further added Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC, to which the defence argued that had Kumar caused the accident it would at most be an offence under Section 304-A (death by negligence).
The victim had also spoken about threats from Kumar and said the motive was that he wanted to park only his vehicle at the park besides their house. While the prosecution said this made the act intentional and an offence under Section 304 and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the IPC, the court observed that it had been unable to prove this but offence under Section 304-A was established.
Court observations
The defence had tried to dispute the identity of the driver but the court observed that he was their neighbor and there cannot be any dispute for this. The court added that it feels no hitch to hold that Kumar had driven his car rashly and negligently due to which he caused the accident and injured the child Ariz and caused the death of the child Shifa.
Kumar was awarded two year sentence for offence under Section 304-A and six months for offence under Section 337. Both sentences will run concurently. However the benefit of probation was not extended.
