Delhi Mercedes hit-and-run case: Accused driver not a juvenile?

In a new twist, the Delhi Police is verifying if the accused in a hit-and-run case is an adult not a minor as alleged earlier.

Pic courtesy: TV grab

New Delhi: In a new twist, the Delhi Police is verifying if the accused in the Mercedes hit-and-run case is an adult and not a minor as alleged earlier.

On Friday, police arrested Manoj Aggarwal, the father of the 'minor' who killed a 33-year-old business consultant by hitting him with his speeding Mercedes car here on April 04.

Today, a news agency quoted sources as saying that the Delhi Police is verifying the legitimacy of documents which showed the accused as a juvenile.

Police will also confiscate passport of the accused juvenile so that he doesn't flee the country during trial, added sources.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma said that the father of the accused has been arrested and booked under Section 109 of IPC and Section 304 II.

The CCTV footage indicates the possibility of juvenile being aware that his extremely fast driving in a residential area can cause a death, said the DCP.

Sidharth Sharma died after being hit by the overspeeding Mercedes car on Monday night while crossing Sham Nath Marg in north Delhi's Civil Lines area to get some eatables from the nearby market.

Police had apprehended the minor offender on Tuesday but freed him on bail as he was only booked under charges of causing death by negligence of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

After an uproar followed by allegations by the victim's family that police officers were going soft on the accused, police took a U-turn on Friday, not only changing the section mentioned in the FIR but also arrested Aggarwal.

In an official statement on Friday, police said: "On examination of CCTV footage during investigation of case FIR No. 118 being registered at Civil Lines police station, it was found that the juvenile offender was driving his car in extremely fast speed in a residential area which caused the death of Siddharth Sharma."

"It was not the first offence of rash and negligent driving by the juvenile. In the past, he has also been found driving in such a way thereby causing a road accident with another vehicle.”

"In view of above, the death of Siddharth Sharma is a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and hence section 304 of IPC has been added in place of Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) of IPC," said Verma.

The officer further said there had not been a single step taken by Aggarwal in prohibiting his son from taking the vehicle. "This is an act of criminal omission, thereby abetting the crime of the said juvenile. Therefore we arrested Aggarwal."