The court directed that the mother of the two boys be compensated for her loss. A SESSIONS court in a recent order acquitted a woman, who was booked for crashing a car into two bicycling children causing their death, for lack of evidence. The court also acquitted her husband, who was alleged to be teaching her to drive when the incident took place in Cuffe Parade in 2016. The court said that the investigation was carried out in a casual manner.
Sangitadevi Rai and Santoshkumar Rai were booked on charges including section 304 (causing death due to negligence), 279 (rash and negligent driving) of the Indian Penal Code and other sections of the Motor Vehicle Act. The police had alleged that on December 11, 2016, while learning to drive, Sangitadevi had rammed the car into a bicycle being ridden by two minor siblings.
“…The investigating officer has not attempted to collect the evidence on record to show that the vehicle was either owned by the accused no.2 or said vehicle, though not owned by the accused, but at the relevant time it was in possession of both the accused. Admittedly, there is no evidence adduced by the prosecution to show that either accused no.1 or accused no.2 were owners of the vehicle or they were in possession of the said vehicle,” Principal Judge Urmila Joshi Phalke said in her order.
During the trial, while the accused’s lawyers had raised the issue that the children were not wearing helmets or taking safety measures, the court said that no negligence can be attributed to small children as it is the duty of the vehicle driver to take care of pedestrians.
The court directed that the mother of the two boys be compensated for her loss. “The loss sustained (by the mother) cannot be compensated in money, however, it is to be assured that the victim is not forgotten in the criminal justice system,” the court said.
Among the witnesses examined by the prosecution were the informant, a constable, who had rushed to the spot when he heard a commotion and found one of the boys beneath the car’s bumper and another injured.
Both were rushed to the hospital where they succumbed to their injuries.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
