Merc hit-and-run: Court allows further probe

NEW DELHI: A court today allowed the plea of Delhi Police to further probe the case involving a teenager who allegedly ran over a 32-year-old marketing executive

NEW DELHI: A court today allowed the plea of Delhi Police to further probe the case involving a teenager who allegedly ran over a 32-year-old marketing executive in north Delhi while driving his father’s Mercedes in April.

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The police sought the court’s permission saying they have come to know that before this hit-and-run case, the boy was challaned for speeding in which he had presented a “false and forged driving licence” to the traffic police.

Additional sessions judge Vim al Kumar Yadav while allowing the application fixed September 26 for further proceedings. The accused turned major four days after the incident. Special public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava argued that earlier, the juvenile was challaned for speeding when he was driving the same car at 89 kmph.

“When a challan was issued, he showed a driving licence to the traffic personnel and claimed it was issued from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh. A report has been received from the authorities in Etawah which says they didn’t issue the driving licence,” he said.

The plea was opposed by the counsel for the boy on the grounds that he was a juvenile and the police knew about the licence before. The police had said in its charge sheet that the boy ran over victim Siddharth Sharm a when he was crossing the road near Ludlow Castle School on April 4.

The Juvenile Justice Board had on June 4 ordered that the boy would face trial as an adult as the offence allegedly committed by him was “heinous ”. It is the first-of-its-kind case since the amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 that allows the Board to transfer cases of heinous offences by juveniles to the sessions court.

The police had on May 26 charge sheeted the boy in JJB for culpable homicide not amounting to murder which entails a maximum of 10 years jail. The charge sheet was filed for alleged offences under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life) against him.