Killer ST driver pleads for leniency

State transport driver Santosh Mane, who was recently held guilty by the Bombay High Court for mowing down nine people and injuring 39 in Pune in 2012, pleaded for leniency in the sentence before the court on Tuesday. Mane's crime attracts the death penalty.

Advocate Jaydeep Mane, who represented the driver, said his client was filled with remorse for the incident. "If he is pardoned by the court or released after serving a lesser sentence, he would go back to his village and become a farmer for the rest of his life," told the lawyer to a division bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode.

Mane argued that the case did not fall in the rarest of rare category. Relying on various judgments of the Supreme Court and other high courts, he said the convict should be given a chance to reform.

"The accused has four children, he lost his father recently and his wife and old mother are dependent on him. Further, there was no enmity between him and the deceased nor was there any intention to commit the offence," said Mane.

However, the prosecution strongly opposed the leniency plea. Advocate Sandeep Shinde argued, "The act of the accused was with his complete knowledge, all this happened within 35 minutes and witness statements show that whenever there was an attempt to curtail him by the police he would back off his vehicle."

The bench though asked the prosecution whether the incident had raised a public outcry. It referred to incident of the Delhi (December 16) and Mumbai gang rape cases. Justice Kanade said, "After the Nirbhaya case there was a huge reaction, so was after the Shakti Mills case. Was there a similar reaction after this incident. Should this aspect be weighed before passing our judgment on the sentence in this case."

The court has now directed the prosecution reply to this query on Wednesday by referring to judgments that have dealt with the aspect of public outcry while determining whether a person should be sent to the gallows or otherwise.