Hit and run minor before juvenile board, father gets bail

The minor father Manoj Aggarwal was arrested on Friday

A minor accused in the killing of a 33-year-old business consultant in a hit-and-run case is likely to be produced before a juvenile board while his father has been granted bail after a city court's order here on Sunday.

A duty Metropolitan Magistrate at Tis Hazari Court Complex ordered Delhi Police to preset the minor offender before the juvenile board, granting bail to his father Manoj Aggarwal on personal bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.

The father was arrested on Friday.

Police had apprehended the minor offender on Tuesday after he killed Sidhharth Sharma by hitting with his overspeeding Mercedes car on Monday night when the victim was crossing Sham Nath Marg in north Delhi's Civil Lines area to get some eatables from the nearby market.

The minor was then freed on bail, as he was only booked under section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

After an uproar followed by allegations by the victim's family that police officers were going soft on the accused, police took a U-turn on Friday, not only changing the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section mentioned in the FIR but also arrested Aggarwal.

Aggarwal was arrested under section 304 (abetting the crime of culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC as the investigators found that he, despite knowing the fact that his minor son had caused a road accident earlier, gave the vehicle's key to him.

The Delhi Police had managed to get Aggarwal's one-day custody on the basis of the proofs they submitted to the court, saying he had "not taken a single step in prohibiting his son from taking the vehicle" which is an act of criminal omission.

Police also found in its investigation that it was not the first offence of rash and negligent driving by the juvenile. In the past, he has also been found driving in such a way thereby causing a road accident with another vehicle.

Police had earlier informed court that a CCTV footage clearly showed that the minor offender was driving his car in extremely fast speed in a residential area.