A sessions court here has dismissed an appeal and sent a man to jail for 13 months, upholding a trial court judgment in a case of knocking down a lemon water seller by the appellant near Ramjas School in south Delhi’s R.K. Puram in 2000.
Trial court
The trial court had convicted and sentenced the car driver to 13 months’ imprisonment under Sections 304A (causing death by rash and negligent act) and 279 (driving or riding on a public way... to endanger human life) on the basis of an account by the victim’s son, who was an eyewitness.
The victim’s son had seen the car driver hit his father just as he was about to deliver a lunch packet to him. He was carrying it from home. Also, the driver did not have a driving licence.
Upholding the Magistrate court order, Additional Sessions Judge Santosh Snehi Mann said: “Deposition of PW2 [victim’s son] as a whole establishes that he had seen the accident from a distance of about 10 feet. He had apprehended the appellant/accused at the spot and handed him over to the local police. He denied the suggestion that van was driven by some other person and reiterated that accused was driving the van.”
Rejecting the plea for lenient punishment by the convict on grounds that he had been facing trial for 18 long years, the judge said: “Record reveals that appellant/accused also contributed to delay of the trial by either absenting from the trial or by taking adjournments. In the facts and circumstances, if the delay in the trial is taken as a ground for leniency in the sentence, it will encourage culprits to abuse the court process to their advantage and shall make mockery of the criminal justice administration.”
‘Lenient view’
“I am of the view that the trial court has already taken a lenient view in imposing sentence on the appellant/accused, and there is no further scope for reduction in the sentence imposed on the appellant/accused by the trial court for the offence punishable under Section 279/304A IPC,” the judge added.