A sessions court in Mumbai on Thursday convicted and sentenced a man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment on charges of throwing an accident victim into Vashi creek instead of taking him to hospital after the accused rammed his car into the
victim’s scooter.The prosecution’s case is that 18-year-old Nasir Shaikh, who was studying in class 12, had gone to drop his sister’s son to a nursery school in the morning of June 16, 2011, but did not return home.
Later they received a phone call from an acquaintance, Badshah Shaikh, who informed Nasir’s family that their son met with an accident and the car that was involved in the accident had taken him away. Following this, Nasir’s mother Shama and father Shakeel Ahmed went to Shatabdi Hospital, but when they did not find him they registered a missing person complaint with the Trombay police.
According to advocate G.H. Khan, who had filed habeas corpus petition in the Bombay high court on behalf of the family, apparently it looked like a case of simple accident. But Nasir could not be found in hospital or anywhere else.
Soon the police traced the car involved in the accident and its driver Simon Sebastian told the police that there was a mishap and he was taking the victim to hospital but en route he suddenly got up and told him to take him to Baiganwadi in Shivaji Nagar, where he threatened him with a knife and ran away.
The police registered a case of negligent driving against Sebastian, but when Nasir did not return home for couple of days his parents approached the high court and it is only after the high court reprimanded the police they took action against Sebastian. During the investigation Sebastian gave a confessional statement before the Kurla magistrate and said he had actually taken Nasir to Vashi Bridge and threw him in the creek. The police then added Section 302 (murder) in the case.
Public prosecutor Vijay Malankar examined 9 witnesses, including Pushpa Kohli and Badshah Shaikh, both eyewitnesses to the accident. The prosecution also examined the magistrate who had recorded confessional statement of the accused, which corroborated with circumstantial evidence. However additional sessions judge D.G. Murumkar acquitted Sebastian from charge of murder and convicted him under Section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The court has sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for 10 years and pay a fine of Rs5,000.
