60-yr-old man gets 6-month jail for causing death of teenager

A 60-year-old man has been sent to six months in jail for causing death of a teenager by his rash driving, with a Delhi court observing that there was no legal requirement of a public witness in every case.
The court made the observation while dismissing the man's appeal in which he had raised the ground that he should be acquitted as no public witness was examined by prosecution.
"There is no legal requirement that in every case there should be a public witness but some time rule of prudence demands that public witness should be examined, if possible.
"In this case keeping in view the clear and consistent statement of prosecution witness, even if no public witness was examined by the prosecution, it did not create any doubt on the veracity of prosecution case. In view of the reasons, the grounds of appeal raised by appellant are found without merits," Special Judge Sanjay Garg-I said.

The court upheld the conviction and sentence of Gurcharan Singh, a senior citizen and a resident of Sudershan Park, for the offences of sections 279 (rash driving) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC and directed him to surrender. The trial court had also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on him.
Besides this, he was also directed to pay Rs two lakh compensation to 18-year-old victim Ramandeep Singh's family.

"The very fact which stands established on record that appellant (Gurcharan) was driving the offending vehicle at the time of accident on the wrong side of the road in itself establish that he was driving in a rash and negligent manner. It was a head-on collision and on that basis no negligent can be attributed to the deceased," the judge said.

According to the prosecution, the accident took place on the morning of March 16, 2005 when the victim was riding his motorcycle and met with an accident with Indica car, being driven in a rash manner by Gurcharan, in Rajinder Nagar area in Central Delhi. Ramandeep suffered fatal injuries.
In his defence, Gurcharan claimed that the accident occured due to Ramandeep's fault as he was riding bike at a high speed and in a rash and negligent manner.