A Delhi court has acquitted a DTC bus driver of the charge of crushing a commuter to death due to rash and negligent driving, holding that the passenger was himself responsible for the fate that he met with as he tried to alight when the vehicle was yet to stop at the designated place.
‘Hasty act’
“When the bus stop was around only 50 yards from the bus stand, it was the duty of the passenger that he should have waited till the arrival of the stand. De-boarding a moving bus and that too prior to the arrival of the bus stand is the over hasty act of the passenger for which the bus driver cannot be held responsible,” Metropolitan Magistrate Kapil Kumar said, while acquitting the driver.
Another important point which facilitated the acquittal of the driver was that the investigating officer of the case gave contradictory statements about recording of the statement of an eyewitness to the accident and his arrival at the spot.
“On the one hand the investigating officer claimed to have recorded the statement of the eyewitness on the spot within 15 minutes of the incident, on the other hand he claimed to have reached the spot over an hour later,” the court noted.
Eyewitness account
The court also said the testimony of the alleged eyewitness, who was a police officer on patrol duty, could not be relied upon as he did not inform the police station immediately after the accident happened.
“Prosecution witness 1 [the eyewitness] was not an ordinary layman, rather he is a police officer. The reasonable conduct of a police officer must have been to inform the police station immediately rather than waiting for some other person to give the information,” the judgment said.
The court allowed the argument of the driver that the passenger was standing at the rear door of the bus, and that when the driver slowed the vehicle down near Minto Road, the passenger tried to get down and sustained fatal injuries.
According to the prosecution, Jagat Narain tried to alight from the moving bus on January 1, 2006, while it was about 50 yards from the stand. Mr. Narain got crushed under its rear wheels.