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| Periera caseunderscores legal |
| But now that the High Court has intervened it appears people have had their faith restored in the judiciary
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| INDIA
, 21-April-2007
1:37:24 AM |
| It appeared at first that Alistair Pereira, the 21-year-old who mowed down seven people while driving in drunken stupor would get away.
But now that the High Court has intervened it appears people have had their faith restored in the judiciary.
The Bombay High Court blasted the police and the prosecution for shoddy work in the Pereira case.
On April 13 a fast-track Mumbai court let off Pereira with just six months sentence.
But contrary to what may seem to many a case of justice denied it's just yet another case where an accused has got away with murder.
That's the impression: Drink, drive, run over and kill a few people and one can almost be sure the accused will not go behind bars.
High profile cases
Manish Khatau, son of industrial Mahindra Khatau, was acquitted in April 2006 even after a traffic constable Jitendra Rokade suffered grievous injuries on the head.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan who in September 2002 ran over four people sleeping on the pavement. The case is still pending.
Puru Rajkumar, actor Rajkumar's son, ran over pavement dwellers in 1993 killing three and crippling one. He was let off after paying Rs 30,000 each to the families of the dead.
The charge of culpable homicide is often applied to drunken driving cases. A charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
But legal experts say it's almost impossible to prove an accused knew his action could cause death.
''The provision of law causing death by rash and negligent driving is presently a bailable offence. It needs to be tightened, made non-bailable and it should result into atleast 2-3 years punishment,'' said Majeed Memon, criminal lawyer.
''Criminal jurisprudence says no one is guilty until proven. If the burden is shifted on the accused to prove he is innocent in all such cases then there is a possibility of control over such incidents,'' said Uday Warunjikar, advocate.
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