Vidyavihar crash: HC refuses to extend interim bail granted to minor for exams

Mumbai: The brief reprieve for the 17-year-old accused in the fatal Vidyavihar crash ended on Friday, when the Bombay High Court refused to extend the interim protection that had allowed him to remain out of custody to take his Class 12 examinations

Mumbai: The brief reprieve for the 17-year-old accused in the fatal Vidyavihar crash ended on Friday, when the Bombay High Court refused to extend the interim protection that had allowed him to remain out of custody to take his Class 12 examinations. The teenager faces a return to a children’s home pursuant to a Sessions Court order cancelling his bail.

On August 5, Justice Shivkumar Dige had stayed the Sessions Court’s order cancelling the teenager’s bail to let the boy sit for his Class 12 exams held between August 6 and 8. With the stay not being extended on Friday, he will have to return to a children’s home in line with the Sessions Court order.

That order, passed on July 31, had overturned the Juvenile Justice Board’s March 6 decision granting the teenager bail. The Sessions Court also directed the Suburban JJB in Dongri to secure his presence and pass appropriate orders for sending him to a child reformative centre.

The bail cancellation followed a challenge by Minal Patel, whose husband, Dhrumil Patel, died after being injured in the crash. Patel had argued that the JJB failed to consider material against the juvenile, including alleged social-media videos showing him performing dangerous driving stunts and the alleged subsequent deletion of accounts carrying the videos.

Police, according to the submissions, went looking for the teenager at his Chembur residence, his father’s shop and a designated place of safety in Navi Mumbai, but could not find him. A police compliance report cited before the HC recorded that “the Applicant’s father and the Applicant were not traceable”.

When cops questioned his mother on August 3, she refused to disclose his whereabouts. She was herself found at the Chembur house instead of the Navi Mumbai safe house, despite a bail condition that the juvenile not stay in Ghatkopar or Chembur. His bail earlier had rested largely on her word that she would exercise strict supervision over him.

The submissions also alleged that the juvenile’s father and another relative offered ₹40 lakh to the victim’s family to withdraw the FIR and complaint. The family later approached the DCP, Zone VI, Mumbai Police, over the alleged offer. The allegation is part of the victim’s side’s submissions before the high court and was not a finding in Friday’s order.

The case stems from the February 5 crash in Vidyavihar in which a SUV allegedly driven by the juvenile rammed the scooter carrying Dhrumil Patel and his wife Minal. Dhrumil suffered severe injuries and died on February 15.

Police had initially registered a case against the juvenile’s father, Valji Raja Bhushan, and arrested him on February 10. The teenager was dealt with separately by the Juvenile Justice Board.