Alister Pereira gets six months jail, Rs5 lakh fine

MUMBAI: Alistair Pereira, 21, accused of running over and killing seven construction workers and injuring eight on the night of November 12, 2006, was awarded a six-month prison term and fined Rs5 lakh on Friday.

The Sewree sessions court acquitted him of the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304-B of the Indian Penal Code, and held him guilty under section 304-A (not amounting to culpable homicide) and section 337 (causing hurt).

Pereira, who was given bail by the high court in December, submitted a suspension of sentence application and was granted a month’s time to go in appeal to the high court. Legal circles said he could have got a maximum of 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment if he had been found guilty under section 304-B.

Though he looked relieved, Pereira said: “I will still have to go to the HC. The trial has not just hurt my academic career, it has also upset my family.”

Pereira’s advocate Manjula Rao urged the court to give him the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, and not send him to prison since he has no criminal history.