John Abraham gets high court breather

Bollywood actor John Abraham was on Friday granted bail by the Bombay high court just hours after he was taken into police custody to serve his sentence in the 2006 rash and negligent driving case.

Justice RC Chavan, while directing his release on payment of Rs20,000 in cash, also suspended his sentence. "Considering the nature of the injury and the fact that he was on bail throughout (the trial), the substantive sentence is suspended," the judge observed.

The 39-year-old actor had rushed to the HC after the sessions court upheld his sentence of 15 days of simple imprisonment for injuring two persons after ramming his motorcycle into a bicycle at Carter Road in suburban Bandra on April 8, 2006.

Aabad Ponda, Abraham's advocate, argued that no case of rash and negligent driving was proved against the actor. Also, Abraham had taken the victims to a nearby hospital for treatment. When the court asked why the actor did not try an out-of-court settlement with the complainant, Ponda said it had not worked out.

He also pointed to the cross-examination statement of one of the victims, Tanmay Mazi, in which he admitted that the bike was 30-35ft away when he was injured. "Our bicycle's wheel was stuck; the motorcycle was far away. I don't know how I fell."

Earlier in the day, a sessions court judge dismissed Abraham's appeal against the order of a metropolitan magistrate court sentencing him to 15 days of imprisonment. He was then taken into custody.

The actor's counsels immediately rushed to the HC seeking bail on the grounds that he has a clean record and that there are no chances of him absconding or tampering with the evidence.

Abraham has also filed a revision application challenging the sessions court's conviction, in which he claims that his bike had not knocked down the two bicyclists.

On October 14, 2010, the metropolitan magistrate court at Bandra had convicted Abraham under section 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), sentenced him to a 15-day jail term and slapped a fine of Rs1,000 on him.

He was also found guilty under section 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others).