A sessions court in Kalyan has granted bail to a man who had been arrested for drunk driving and causing the death of a 40-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter in a road accident two months ago. The deceased were sleeping on a footpath in Dombivali and the accused Iqbal had run them over in the middle of the night.
The prosecution case is that on September 9 Shaikh along with two friends, after an alcohol party, were travelling to their residence in an Innova car. At about 3.30 am 24-year-old Shaikh, a resident of Thakurli, lost control of the car near Girnar Chowk in Dombivali and dashed into a Skoda car that was coming from the opposite direction. Due to the impact, Shaikh’s vehicle veered onto the footpath killing the woman and child sleeping there.
Later the Skoda car driver Jastin who suffered minor injuries alerted the police and got them arrested while another police team rushed the two victims to the Shastri Nagar hospital nearby where the doctor declared them brought dead. The deceased were identified as Meenakumar Shivkumar Bane and her daughter Pushpa.
The police booked Shaikh for negligent, rash driving and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Sometime back Shaikh filed for a bail before the additional sessions judge S.P. Gogarkar and claimed that the complainant, the owner of Skoda car, who had a minor injury in the accident, was equally responsible for the alleged mishap. He claimed that the Skoda car was coming in top speed and in the attempt to avoid a clash, the incident took place. He said it was neither intentional nor negligent but a mere accident.
On the other hand, the public prosecutor opposed the bail plea saying that two persons lost their lives in the mishap and medical examination of the accused driver has shown that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of incident.
After hearing the arguments the judge Mr Gogarkar observed, “Pre-trial conviction cannot be passed by detaining the accused in jail this early in the case.”
The judge also said, “It is true two lives were lost in the said mishap, but two vehicles are involved in the alleged incident. Therefore the applicant of one of the vehicle cannot be detained for an indefinite period.”
The court then granted Shaikh bail on a personal bond of Rs 15,000.
