1-year jail for auto driver who snuffed out morning walker’s life in Panchkula
A resident of Rajiv Colony, Sector 17, Panchkula, Ashish Kumar was convicted under Sections 304-A and 279 of the Indian Penal Code
Over four years after an auto-rickshaw claimed the life of a morning walker in Sector 20, Panchkula, a local court has sentenced its driver to one year in jail.
“The convict has committed crime against society at large by killing a person by his rash and negligent driving. If after such a long trial, after holding the accused guilty, he is released on probation, without awarding any sentence upon him, it will give not only the wrong signal in society, rather, it will give wrong signal to the accused also that he can go scot free without punishment even after committing such serious offences several times, which can result in public chaos,” said the court of judicial magistrate first class Iram Hasan, while awarding the punishment to the convict, Ashish Kumar.
A resident of Rajiv Colony, Sector 17, Panchkula, Ashish was convicted under Sections 304-A and 279 of the Indian Penal Code.
On December 23, 2018, the victim, Balchand, 53, along with his son Ashok Kumar, was out for a morning walk in Sector 20 around 7 am.
As per Ashok’s complaint, while they were passing by Society Number 107, Sector 20, a speeding auto-rickshaw hit his father, leaving him dead.
The auto-rickshaw driver stopped for a while, but on noticing the gathering crowd, sped away.
Ashish, who was driving the auto-rickshaw, was arrested later in the day and granted bail by a court the next day.
During trial, while most witnesses in the case turned hostile, Ashok identified Ashish as the driver of the auto that had hit his father that helped prove his guilt.
The court turned down Ashish’s request for release on probation, saying, “The convict does not deserve any leniency because he committed offences of negligent driving and killing a person.”
