New Delhi: Utsav Bhasin, an industrialist's
son, who is accused of ramming his BMW car into a motorcycle
killing a man in 2008, today told a Delhi court that he cannot
be charged under harsher penal provisions as he neither had
knowledge nor intention to commit offence.
Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Bhasin,
argued the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder
cannot be framed against the accused as there was neither any
knowledge nor any intention to commit the alleged offence.
Police have filed the charge sheet against Bhasin, son of
a Haryana-based industrialist, under section 304 II (culpable
homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC which provides for 10
years imprisonment as maximum sentence.
However, Gupta argued that Bhasin at the most could be
charged under section 304A (causing death by negligent act) of
the IPC. This penal provision attracts two years jail term or
fine or both as maximum punishment.
Additional Sessions Judge Pinki has now fixed the matter
for hearing of furher arguments on February 9.
Earlier, the defence counsel had referred to a Delhi High
Court judgement in the BMW hit-and-run case involving Sanjeev
Nanda in which it was held that no charge for culpable
homicide not amounting to murder could be framed against the
accused if the knowledge and intention are absent.
Bhasin, who was driving his BMW car, had allegedly hit
the motorcycle on Moolchand flyover in South Delhi, killing
Anuj Singh, the motorcyclist, on September 11, 2008.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, January 14, 2010, 20:32