Merc hit-and-run: Board reserves order on plea to try boy as adult
A Juvenile Justice Board reserved its judgement on the issue of trying the Mercedes hit and run teenager who had killed an executive while driving his father's Mercedes, as a major. The Presiding Officer of JJB will pronounce its judgement tomorrow on the application filed by Delhi Police. The police had sought the transfer of the case to trial court.
In a freak accident, Sidharth Sharma was hit by a speeding Mercedes while crossing the road near Ludlow Castle School. Sharma, the marketing head of a multinational company, was tossed "several feet into the air and landed at least 15 metres away". He was rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The Mercedes driver fled the scene of the crime.
Outraged by police's inaction 24 hours after Sidharth Sharma was killed in an accident, his family released the CCTV footage of the incident. The video clearly shows how Sharma had checked for traffic before crossing the road and had been hit by the dashing car (moving at approximately 100km/hr). Sharma's father who is a retired Navy engineer accused the police "of going slow".
After impounding the Mercedes, the police tracked its owner-a businessman living in the Civil Lines area. It was revealed that the driver- a 17-year-old was on a joyride with his friends. The police registered a case of rash driving and causing death by negligence at the Civil Lines police station. The teen was detained under laws for juvenile offenders and later released on bail.
The victim's family claimed that the "police investigation is an eyewash, they did not make immediate arrest even after eyewitnesses narrated the evidence. All the children and parents are responsible for the death of my brother, the buck has to stop here."
In a twist to the Mercedes hit-and-run case, in a first, the police have arrested the father of the teen for abetting the crime. The police said that the father had not taken any measures to stop his son from driving the car. The DCP said the accident was "an act of criminal omission, thereby abetting the crime of the juvenile".
Looking at his past records of neglectful driving, the 17-year-old teen who killed a man with his father's Mercedes in Civil Lines in Delhi was charged with culpable homicide by the police. The police said the driver had been previously involved in a similar accident in the same area. The minor had also been fined three times (twice for over-speeding and for wrong parking).
17 years ago, the Delhi Police had charged Sanjeev Nanda BMW case in 1999 (where six people, including three policemen, were killed) as culpable homicide.
The Delhi police sent the juvenile accused in the Mercedes hit-and-run case to a two-day police custody. The juvenile's plea for bail was rejected by the court yesterday. However, his father who too had been arrested for abetting the crime was given bail. The court asked the father to provide a personal bail bond of Rs.100,000 in court.
A Juvenile Justice Board gave bail to the minor whose Mercedes car had killed a marketing consultant in Delhi. The Juvenile Justice Board granted him bail so he can take his college entrance exams. The board had denied the juvenile bail last week, calling him a "repeat offender" and illustration of "bad parenting"; if proven guilty, he will spend 2 years in juvenile jail.
A Juvenile Justice Board reserved its judgement on the issue of trying the Mercedes hit and run teenager who had killed an executive while driving his father's Mercedes, as a major. The Presiding Officer of JJB will pronounce its judgement tomorrow on the application filed by Delhi Police. The police had sought the transfer of the case to trial court.
