E-Paper
Chandigarh: Trucker who mowed down pedestrian to spend 1-year in jail
As per the case files, on March 3, 2018, Sanjay, who runs a roadside shop in Sector 26 Transport Area, had seen an open-body truck crashing into a pedestrian around 6.30 am
Five years after a truck ran over a pedestrian in Sector 26 in March 2018, a local court has sentenced its driver to one-year rigorous imprisonment.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹1,000 on the convict, Parveen, a resident of Charkhi Dadri, Bhiwani, Haryana.
As per the case files, on March 3, 2018, Sanjay, who runs a roadside shop in Sector 26 Transport Area, had seen an open-body truck crashing into a pedestrian around 6.30 am.
The eyewitness noted down the truck’s registration number that was registered in Bhiwani, Haryana. The truck driver sped away, but on spotting people chasing him, abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot.
The victim, Randhir Singh of Jattwala village, Kalka, was rushed to Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, where he was declared brought dead.
Subsequently, 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 (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Sector-26 police station.
The truck driver, Parveen, was arrested after identification by an eyewitness.
During trial, the prosecution examined nine witnesses, including Sanjay, who all corroborated the version put forward by it.
The defence, meanwhile, argued that there were contradictions in the cross-examination of the eyewitness, and he had improved his version regarding how he had identified the accused and how he had chased after him.
However, the court observed that the accused deserved to be convicted and the eyewitness, an uninterested witness with no relation to the deceased, had unflinchingly deposed regarding the accused driving the vehicle on the day of the incident.
Noting that pictures of the incident showed that the truck had rammed into three other vehicles, and the victim’s blood showed that he was standing on the roadside and not in the middle, the court convicted Parveen.
While the convict prayed for leniency during the quantum of sentence, the court said he had snuffed out the life of a pedestrian and deserved no leniency.
The court directed that a copy of the judgment also be sent to the secretary of District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) for providing compensation to the legal heirs and dependants of the victim under Section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
