Mumbai: A metropolitan magistrate court has acquitted a policeman in a 2014 case of causing death due to negligence and rash driving. The case was registered after the policeman rammed his vehicle into pedestrians at Nariman Point, killing a man and injuring two others.
Defence lawyer Prakash Salsingikar had argued before the court that the prosecution failed to prove that the accused, Mangesh Chavan, was driving the vehicle at the time of the incident. According to him, the spot of the incident had various CCTVs but the police did not produce a recording of the same before the court because it was not supporting their case.
Advocate Salsingikar had also contended that the prosecution claimed that the public assaulted the accused at the spot however, there were no injuries found on his body when he was sent for medical tests after arrest. During trial, none of the witnesses identified the accused in court as the person driving the vehicle involved in the mishap.
The prosecution case is that on November 15, 2014, Chavan, who was driving a car belonging to the Mumbai crime branch, lost control over the vehicle and rammed into pedestrians before crashing into a tree at Nariman Point. A hawker, Mohammed Shagir Ansari (45) died in the incident while a 10-year-old kid Sunil Jaiswal and another hawker Sajid Sayed (30) were seriously injured.
Although the public nabbed the driver on the spot who was identified as police constable Chavan of unit one of the Mumbai crime branch, the prosecution could not prove that he was driving the car at the time of the accident. The prosecution examined four witnesses including an eyewitness - the father-in-law of the deceased Sayed but none of the witnesses could identify Chavan in court.
