Delhi court acquits man of charges of causing death by negligence, rash driving

New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) A Delhi court has set aside a magistrate's order convicting a man for causing death by negligence and rash driving, saying the decision was "unsustainable in law".

Additional Sessions Judge Deepti Devesh, who flagged the prosecution's case as "doubtful", was hearing an appeal filed by Manoj Singh against a magisterial court's orders of February and March 2025, convicting and sentencing him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 304A (causing death by negligence) and 279 (rash driving on a public way).

According to the prosecution, Singh, who was recklessly driving a vehicle, caused the death of an unidentified person on September 10, 2021. It said despite repeated efforts, the identity of the deceased could not be established.

In an order dated December 16 last year, the court said, "In the instant case, not only a public witness was available and present, but the investigating officer (IO) had in fact examined him also, but for reasons best known to the IO himself, the said public witness was never produced before the court as a witness, which makes the case of the prosecution entirely doubtful." It also discarded the testimony of the sole eyewitness, taking note of his testimony of not seeing the actual accident but only hearing a loud noise.

The court questioned the basis on which the witness had informed that the accused's vehicle was over-speeding.

"Thus, when he (eyewitness) was riding ahead (on a two-wheeler) of the offending vehicle and only turned around when he heard a loud noise, on what basis he concluded that the offending vehicle was being driven at the speed of 50 km per hour or above is not explained by him or any other witness," it said.

The court also underlined that the witness had testified about not seeing whether the deceased was "passing (by) or crossing the road" at the time of the alleged accident.

Underlining that the magistrate's orders of conviction and sentence were "unsustainable in law", the court set those aside. PTI MNR RC