Nagpur: 3 MSEDCL staffers, digging contractors convicted for death in road accident

NAGPUR: In probably a landmark judgement, a trial court here on Monday convicted three MSEDCL employees, a road works contractor, sub-contractor, and the driver of the killer truck for causing the death of a food delivery man in an accident in April 2019. The accused were held guilty of negligence at the site of cable-laying works undertaken by power distribution company MSEDCL.
Judge VM Deshmukh convicted all six accused under IPC section 304 (a) for negligence causing death, and IPC section 279 for rash driving or riding. The deceased, Prashant Sontakke (47) was driving his moped on Central Avenue, between Adamshah Chowk and Telephone Exchange Square when this accident occurred.
Advocate Neeraj Khandewale, who was the special public prosecutor in this case, said, “Due to the cable laying work by MSEDCL, and negligence on the part of officials and contactors, the delivery boy was crushed under a tipper.”
Khandewale added, “The honorable high court had taken suo moto cognizance of the incident and registered a PIL. The court directed investigation and prosecution of all concerned in the matter. In view of that, an offence under 304(a), 279 of IPC came to be registered and I was appointed as special public prosecutor to conduct the trial.”
“Today, the trial court convicted all the accused under section 304a and 279 of IPC,” said Khandewale, who was assisted by advocates Saket Narasapurkar, Sanket Puranik and Akanksha Wanjari.
In the operative part of the order, judge VM Deshmukh said, “The accused no. 1 to 6 are convicted for the offence punishable u/s 304-A of the IPC vide section 248(2) of the CrPC and are sentenced to simple imprisonment for three months and shall pay a fine of Rs10,000 each and in default to suffer SI for 15 days.”
Accused no. 1, Rohit Samudre was driving the tipper truck under whose wheels the deceased came.
Accused no. 2 is sub-contractor Nitin Tumsare, who was responsible for digging and laying of cables. Accused no. 3 is Arpit Agrawal, an engineer with contractor M/S Ceinsys Tech Ltd, and was responsible for supervising the work being done by the sub-contractor.
Khandewale said, “Accused no. 4 Vishwajit Humane is an official of MSEDCL. Abrar Juberi (accused no. 5) and Noman Ansari (no. 6) are also MSEDCL employees. They were responsible for that particular zone where the fatal accident occurred.”
Apart from the fines imposed on all the accused, the court also ordered them to pay compensation to the deceased’s family. While Samudre has to pay Rs5,000 compensation, all others have to pay Rs50,000 each to the legal heirs of the deceased.