The Bombay High Court will today hear the case of Alister Pereira, the 21-year-old businessman, who got away with six month's imprisonment for running his car over labourers sleeping on a Bandra pavement and killing seven of them last November.
Mumbai, May 3 : The Bombay High Court will today hear the case of Alister Pereira, the 21-year-old businessman, who got away with six month's imprisonment for running his car over labourers sleeping on a Bandra pavement and killing 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).
Though the prosecution sought maximum punishment, the Additional Sessions Judge Ajit P. Mishra had said that due to the inefficiency of the prosecution he could find no evidence to nail Pereira.
The judgement had sparked outcry and the High Court, taking suo motu notice, had issued notice to Maharashtra Government asking why the prosecution of the case was so "pathetic".
The State Government had moved the Bombay High Court appealing against the lower court's judgement giving lighter punishment to Pereira.
The appeal filed by the State Government and the High Court's notice will come up for hearing before Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S C Dharmadhikari.
Earlier, a Division Bench had ordered the State to furnish forensic, post-mortem as well as injury reports of the victims.
The State has been directed to consider granting compensation to the victims and to the kin of the deceased and file a reply by today.
The court also ordered Pereira not to leave the State and submit his passport to the authorities.
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