Email
Print
ShareMUMBAI: The 'lenient' six-month jail term handed out to Alistair Pereira for killing seven persons under his car last November came under the scrutiny of the Bombay High Court on Thursday.
Reprimanding the authorities for the shoddy investigation and prosecution lapses, Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice SC Dharmadhikari said: "There can't be a greater slur on the system." The HC issued notices to the state government, Pereira and relatives of the deceased and those injured, asking why the court should not examine and satisfy itself about the "correctness, legality and propriety of the findings, sentence and order passed during the trial."
The judges' concern over preventing "miscarriage of justice if any" was evident when they asked, "Do the ends of justice require this court to pass any general or specific directions keeping in view the conduct of the investigating and prosecution agencies in the case?"
The HC has restrained Pereira, who is currently out on bail, from leaving the state and asked him to surrender his passport. Last week, a fast track court had held Pereira, 21, guilty of rash driving and killing seven labourers sleeping on a pavement on Carter Road.
But due to serious lapses by the investigating agency and the prosecution, Pereira got away with only six months in jail and a fine of Rs5 lakh. The verdict, delivered in a record five-day trial, met with public outcry. Judge Ajit Mishra, who presided over the trial, had said the police "did not know how to investigate a serious offence" after they failed to submit urine and blood reports to prove that Pereira was drunk at the time of the accident.
Noting the gravity of the case, the HC judges summoned advocate-general Ravi Kadam before the court on Thursday. Pointing out a primal lapse in the case, the judges said there were six persons in Pereira's car and all were drunk. "Why were the five persons not examined in court?" they asked.
The judges added that the investigating officer had said in his statement that eyewitnesses had seen Pereira and his friends get out of the car after the accident and run from the site. Observing that the relatives of the deceased and injured were labourers, who could ill-afford filing suits for compensation or damages, the judges asked why Pereira and his accomplices should not be directed to pay them compensation. The matter will now be heard on May 3.
