Bombay HC to hear Pereiras hit-and-run case

The Bombay High Court will hear the Alister Pereira hit-and-run case today.

Mumbai, June 6 : The Bombay High Court will hear the Alister Pereira hit-and-run case today.

Mumbai Police Commissioner D N Jadhav, who was directed by the high court to look into the case, will submit its report today.

Pereira had moved the high court, seeking his acquittal while challenging his conviction by a fast track court last month on the grounds that he was convicted under Section 304-a of IPC which did not figure in the charge sheet.

Pereira, a 21-year-old businessman, got away with a six month prison term for running his car over labourers sleeping on a Bandra pavement. He killed seven of them last November.

Pereira was found guilty of causing death due to negligence not amounting to culpable homicide (Section 304-a) and causing injuries (Section 337 of IPC) by the Sewri sessions court.

The lower court judgement had sparked public outcry, which led the High Court to take suo motu notice of the incident. It had issued a notice to the Maharashtra Government, asking why the prosecution of the case was so "pathetic".

The Maharashtra Government had moved the court against the lower court's judgement giving lighter punishment to Pereira.

Earlier, the court had ordered Pereira not to leave the State and to submit his passport to the authorities.

Additional Sessions Judge Ajit Mishra, who handed a six-month imprisonment to Pereira, had resigned last week.

His sentence evoked protests from some lawyers and civil rights activists who said that this was yet another case of malfunctioning of the criminal justice system in the country after similar instances in Delhi and elsewhere in the recent past.

ANI