When I heard the news that Mumbai High Court has taken the decision to re-look into the Pereira case, an old Hindi film dialogue came to mind, “Bhagwan ke ghar dair hai andher nahiâ€.
For those not aware, here is a re-cap.
Alister Pereira, Bandra based boy and son of a Mumbai businessman was charged with running his car over seven laborers, sleeping on a Mumbai pavement in Carter Road last year. Allegedly he and his friends were found to under the influence of alcohol. The accident had killed seven pavement dwellers and seriously injured eight more. The victims included a pregnant woman and children.
Alister was held guilty for causing death not amounting to culpable homicide.
Last week Sweri court found there was sufficient evidence to find 21-year-old Pereira guilty under sections 304 (a) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 337 (causing injury) of Indian Penal Code.
He was sentenced to ONLY six months to jail for rash driving in the hit and run case and fined Rs 500,000.
However this judgment did not go down well with several social activists and Mumbai citizens who felt that Alister, thanks to his connections and shoddy police investigation was let-off easy by the local court.
The HC notice comes in the wake of a harsh reprimand by the Sewri court last week while delivering its judgment, in which it virtually accused Mumbai police of botching up the investigation and turning what was widely believed to be an open-and-shut case on its head. During the hearing the prosecution had sought maximum possible punishment for Pereira – culpable homicide and causing grievous hurt, however the defense Manjula Rao argued that there were many loopholes in the evidence presented by the prosecution.
Responding to the media report of the notice being served, Mumbai Police Commissioner D P Jhadav was guarded in his response today, saying the police would take appropriate steps after the notice is received which is expected to be tomorrow (April 20).
Obviously this means Alister will continue to enjoy his freedom outside the prison cell for the next coming months, while court proceedings takes its course but hopefully at the end of it all, he will get what he deserves.
Comments
3 comments | Add your comment »
indohstani
Apr 20th, 2007 at 9:31 am | #
When Salman Khan rode his vehicle over some pavement dwellers wasn’t it the Bombay High Court that ruled that drunk driving did not invite the manslaughter charge?
Moreover if the prosecution was shoddy and there wasn’t enough evidence then shouldn’t the public ire be directed towards the prosecution rather than Pereira?
When the prosecution has failed to prove its allegations what makes you bay for Pereira’s blood? Shouldn’t you be baying for the blood of the investigating officer and the government counsels?
Let us hope that the Hon’ble judges will always, suo moto, take up all the cases where there has been a miscarriage of justice and deliver us all from situations where the police and the prosecution make up false cases or screw up cases to the benefit of others.
It remains to be seen how a person who has not sued for compensation can be given the same by the High Court and that too in a criminal case.
Vishal
Apr 20th, 2007 at 3:48 pm | #
I guess this proves FAME+MONEY > MONEY
Long live Jackass Sallu!
santosh
Apr 22nd, 2007 at 11:48 am | #
It is easy to whip a city-based rich guy if he’s found drunk while driving. Even more so when there’s an accident that unfortunately kills people. Let’s take out the rich guy and put a truck driver in his place. Instead of the city, the driver is doing this so called ‘murders’ on the countryside highway. How does this situation look like?? Actuall, many of these happen everyday. The latter examples exceed the former by 100:1. Probably more than that. Did anybody notice. Nope. Only if we cared more, we’d know. Also because the media isn’t interested in stories of truckdrivers killing themselves and others, and only highlights the masala news such as this one. And we faithfully give our verdict as respectable citizens.
Moreover, in this Pereira case, I am sure he’s repentent of what he’s commited unintentionally. If it is 6 months sentence, it is a good enough one to disrepute him. NGOs chase publicity a la the girl who cut her wrist in front of Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding. They’re not interested in doing good. Only getting good publicity by showering false affection on the victims. This guy has been punished enough. Take the media out of this trial. They blow things out of proportion. They made the Big B’s security guards’ lives ‘living hell’ for the past many days. When the guards lost their cool and hit a few blows, these chaps showed themselves as victims. Can we believe such one-sided views? Think about it.