Delhi hit-and-run: Minor's father chargesheeted

Delhi Police on Friday chargesheeted the father of a minor driver involved in a hit-and-run case in which a business consultant was killed, court sources said.

The fresh additional chargesheet was filed before a magistrate here, who has listed the matter for Saturday for further hearing.

The court was hearing a case against the juvenile, who turned major just four days after the Mercedes he was driving at high speed mowed down Siddharth Sharma in Civil Lines area of north Delhi on April 4 evening last year.

According to court sources, police has chargesheeted the juvenile's father under charges dealing with abetment to culpable homicide for letting his son drive despite knowing he had caused an accident earlier.

In the first prosecution under the amended Juvenile Justice Act, the Juvenile Justice Board ordered that the minor will be tried as an adult while allowing the Delhi Police plea seeking to try the offender - who was 17 in April last year - as an adult as the offence was defined as heinous crime.

Police, in its chargesheet filed on May 26 last year, had charged the juvenile with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which entails a maximum of 10 years in jail.

In the final investigation report, police charged the juvenile with offences under the Indian Penal Code's sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life).

Both father and son are out on bail.

--IANS

akk/vd