Rs 24.4L compensation to kin of brothers killed in accident

A jeep had rammed into their motorcycle on the old Vashi creek bridge

The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) here in Maharashtra has awarded a collective compensation of Rs 24.40 lakh to the families of two brothers who were killed in a road accident in 2013.

Gulabchand D Gupta and Premchand D Gupta, then aged 41 and 44 respectively, had separate businesses.

On February 23, 2013, they were on way to the APMC (agriculture produce market committee) at Vashi from Kurla in neighbouring Mumbai when a jeep rammed into their motorcycle on the old Vashi creek bridge.

The two brothers fell from their two-wheeler, received serious injuries and died on way to hospital.

The counsel for the victims' families told the tribunal that Gulabchand Gupta earned Rs 16,000 per month while Premchand Gupta earned Rs 18,744 a month. Their families lodged claims for Rs 25 lakh and Rs 35 lakh, respectively.

The respondents in the case were the jeep driver, a Navi Mumbai-based private company which owned the jeep and the vehicle's insurance company.

MACT chairman R M Joshi, in two different orders issued earlier this month, directed the three respondents to jointly and severally pay Rs 13,30,000 to the family of Gulabchand Gupta and Rs 11,10,052 to the family of Premchand Gupta, along with an interest at seven per cent per annum from the date of filing the claim.

The tribunal also ordered that 50 per cent of the amounts be paid to the widows of the victims and the remaining to be equally distributed among their children and the mother of the two deceased.