By IANS
Mumbai : Saying there was “no reason for uncalled sympathy” for him, a Bombay High Court judgment Thursday hiked the sentence of businessman Alistair Pereira to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for the deaths of seven pavement dwellers in a hit-and-run accident last year.
Chief Justice Swantanter Kumar held Pereira, 21, guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The court also imposed a fine of Rs.500,000 on him.
“There can be no reason for any uncalled sympathy in the case,” the chief justice observed.
Coming down hard on the Mumbai Sessions Court that gave a lighter sentence earlier, Kumar said the lower court failed to properly examine material evidence. “The lower court ignored material evidence in the case and did not take the gravity of the offence into account.”
The sessions court in April let off the 21-year-old businessman lightly with a six-month sentence, holding him guilty only for rash driving. The lower court too had fined him Rs.500,000.
The verdict of the lower court received wide criticism from civil society groups with many alleging lapses by the investigating police officials and the prosecution.
The investigating agency had failed to submit urine and blood sample reports to prove that Pereira was drunk at the time of the accident.
Pereira and five others were returning from a party at a five-star hotel in the wee hours in November 2006 and were allegedly drunk when they mowed down seven labourers sleeping on a pavement on Carter Road in suburban Bandra. Of the victims, two were children and one a pregnant women.
Pereira, who is currently on bail, has appealed for bail in the case once again.