HC junks plea to quash trucker’s 4- month prison
A local court refusing to show leniency towards a man guilty of crushing a person under his rashly driven truck, Additional Sessions Judge S. K. Gupta upheld a magisterial court order awarding the man four- month rigorous jail term.
The judge said that the man cannot claim sympathy as those who play with fire cannot complain of burnt fingers.
“One person has lost his life. The appellant ( driver) was driving a commercial vehicle and also didn’t take the deceased to hospital. A deterrent punishment is important, especially in road accident cases, so that persons who ply vehicles on road bear in mind that they will have to face conviction and imprisonment,” the judge said.
“Leniency in such cases will be an injustice to the family members of the deceased. A stern message has to be given to the society,” he added.
The court, while dismissing truck driver Om Prakash’s appeal against the jail term awarded to him, said the entire evidence on the file proved that he was driving the truck in a rash and negligent manner. The accident took place more than a decade ago.
According to the prosecution, on September 11, 2006, the deceased was riding his scooter near Okhla when a rashly driven truck hit him from behind due to which he fell down and became unconscious. An eye witness to the accident took the victim to the hospital where he was declared as brought dead.
Prakash had challenged the April 27, 2017 order of a magisterial court which sentenced him to fourmonth rigorous imprisonment for offences under Sections 279 and 304A of the IPC besides direction to pay a compensation of
50,000 to the kin of victim ` Shashi Bhushan.
In his plea, he contended that the prosecution could not prove his identity in the case and there was lack of evidence.
The court rejected Prakash’s contention and relied on the FIR copy and the charge sheet filed against him. “To my mind, there is no ground to take a lenient view as the trial court has already passed the sentence,” the judge said.