Court drops culpable homicide charge in car crash case

Mumbai, Oct 15 (PTI) A court here has said that a man accused of driving a car rashly and causing an accident that killed his teenage friend can not be tried for `culpable homicide not amounting to murder'. Sourya Jain, the accused, allegedly crashed a car into a stationary bus in Marine Drive area here in May 2020, injuring himself as well as his friend Aryaman Nagpal, who was on the front seat. Nagpal, son of a hotelier, succumbed to his injuries.

Additional sessions judge S D Tawshikar, in a order passed on October 14, noted that "no doubt an innocent young boy has lost his life, but at the same time one cannot lose sight from overall circumstances in which offence took place." Police first registered a case against Jain under Indian Penal Code sections 304-A (rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide) and 279 (rash driving). But section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) was pressed when it was found that Jain possessed no valid driving licence at the time of the incident.

Defence lawyer Hrishikesh Mundargi argued that the incident was unforeseen, and Jain could not have had the intention to cause the accident or even knowledge that it would take place.

The court accepted that one could not assume that the accused knew that the car would crash into a bus. "Stretching an accusation too far to include graver offence without there being prima facie material, to my mind, goes against principles of fair trial," the judge said.

This was not a case where a car killed a person outside, and the accused himself had suffered severe injuries, the court said, adding, "The incident can at the most be result of rash or negligent act of the applicant." The judge then sent the case to a metropolitan magistrate for conducting the trial for other, lesser offences. PTI AVI KRK