The labourers who were killed or injured were sleeping on the road and not on the pavement, it was argued before the Bombay High Court on Monday.
MUMBAI: The labourers who were killed or injured in the Carter Road accident involving Alister Pereira were sleeping on the road and not on the pavement, it was argued before the Bombay High Court on Monday.
The submission was made by Pereira's lawyer Manjula Rao before the division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Ranjana Desai, which is currently hearing the state's appeal against the lighter sentence given to the convict whose car mowed down 15 labourers killing seven and and injuring eight others on Carter Road last November.
Rao tried to put forth a theory that the Toyota Corolla driven by her client first hit the road divider, which resulted in its right front wheel coming off, and then he could not control the vehicle which mowed down the labourers.
The defence counsel also stressed the point that as per the panchnama, 'there was no sign of anyone living on the pavement' while on the other hand, there were pieces of clothes and blood stains on the road, which suggested that people were sleeping on the road and not the pavement.
She further pointed out that as per the panchnama itself, a tempo and a dumper were parked on the road a little way behind the accident spot, so Alister could not have seen that there were people sleeping further ahead.
"No knowledge that his car was heading towards sleeping persons could be attributed to him," Rao said, referring to the state's plea that Alister be convicted under 304 (II) i.e. causing death with the knowledge that the act committed can lead to death.
She also produced a sketch of the accident spot, arguing that the road is 'S' shaped where the accident happened.
However, Advocate General Ravi Kadam objected to Rao's line of argument, saying that she could not 'construct a factual case' at the appeal level, and these points should have been argued at the trial court itself.
But, Rao argued that according to the brake-marks noted in the panchnama, Pereira applied brakes before the point from where he could have seen the labourers.
She also sought to contradict the theory that the car was at a very high speed, saying in that case, Pereira would have been severely hurt when the car hit the divider.
However the judges quipped, "You (Pereira) were lucky."
The judges also questioned her argument that since one of the front wheels had come off and another deflated, he could not control the car once it hit the divider and lurched towards the labourers.
"When did the right-front wheel come out?" asked the judges, adding that there would not have been any accident had the wheel come off before the car overran the people. Had that been the case, the car would have overturned to right, the judges said.
"You were lucky but not that lucky," the judges said, pointing out that the right wheel fell close to the accident spot and not at the divider. The argument would continue on Tuesday.
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