Delhi: Industrialist's son gets 2-year jail, fined Rs 12 lakh

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday awarded two years jail term to Utsav Bhasin, the son of a Haryana based industrialist, for crushing a man to death and injuring a journalist with his overspeeding BMW car in 2008. 

While awarding the jail term to Bhasin, the court noted that cow-killers get more stringent punishment than errant drivers. The court also directed Bhasin to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the kin of the deceased and Rs 2 lakh to the injured journalist. 

It noted in the order that sentence for killing cow is five or seven or 14 years in different states but in case of a death of a human being caused by rash or negligent driving, sentence prescribed in law is only two years. Bhasin, who was awarded the jail term on Saturday, was also granted bail by the court which directed him to furnish a bail bond of Rs 50,000 with a surety of like amount. 

Expressing shock over the statistics of road accidents in India, the judge said, “I am compelled to observe that India has a disreputable record of road accidents” while noting that according to National Crime Record Bureau during 2015, a total of 4.64 lakh cases of road accidents were reported which rendered 4.82 lakh persons injured and 1.48 lakh deaths.

“One is shocked to know the statistics about road accidents in our country. Every minute one accident takes place and every four minutes one person dies in road accidents,” it said.

Referring to slogan, “Sabka saath sabka vikas”, the judgment said that this goal can only be achieved when people do not die in accidents.

The verdict also quotes Union minister Nitin Gadkari, to highlight the fact that road accidents kill more people than terrorism or natural disasters.

The judge further said that a copy of the judgement be sent to the Prime Minister for looking into the aspect of inadequate punishment for offence causing death by negligence under section 304 A of the IPC.

Referring to the death of Union minister Gopinath Munde in an accident in 2014 here, the judgment rued this fact that the inadequate punishment provided for the offence in 1861 is still being persisted with.