Nagpur: Blood spills on Nagpur roads, young lives are snuffed out, but killer vehicles continue to run amok on streets with their drivers out on bail. The ‘accident-due-to-negligence’ policy of Nagpur police has come under heavy scrutiny with repeated use of bailable provisions for serious accident cases.
After 19-year-old Muskan Khiyaldasani was crushed to death on the same stretch a month ago, Mankapur police invoked non-bailable culpable homicide. In the case of Sarvesh Kashelikar, 34, a topper associated with the VNIT community, a private bus allegedly rammed his bicycle on RPTS Road on October 26. In another case, a 22-year-old motorcyclist, Rishikesh Vanjal, died on the spot after a truck rammed his bike at Chankapur in Saoner on October 31. His 80-year-old grandmother, who was riding pillion, suffered serious injuries.
Mankapur police’s non-bailable charges against the trucker who mowed down a 31-year-old woman on Tuesday was an exception, but most cases reflect a pattern of invoking bailable BNS 106 (1) — causing death due to negligence.
“These are bailable charges,” said a legal expert. In the other cases, there were no protests and hence no stringent law,” said a legal expert. The inconsistency in applying the law has raised questions on whether police action depends on the gravity of an accident or public outrage that follows. The stringent section invoked in Ashwini Phalke’s death by Mankapur police seems to be fallout of public uproar. Three recent cases highlight the concern. “The luggage chamber cover of the bus was open and the extended flap hit the bicycle. How can a bus run with such a long luggage chamber open and it’s still a bailable offence?” asked a family source. The FIR at Bajajnagar police station again displayed rampant use of bailable provisions in such serious accidents. Khaparkheda police invoked causing death by negligence, rash driving and endangering life, along with provisions of failure to assist and report an accident. “What raised eyebrows is the contrast with the Godhani accident involving Ashwini Phalke, where public outrage, road blockades and protests followed the death. Police invoked the stringent, non-bailable culpable homicide provision in that case.
Similarly, the November 3 accident at Zone Chowk claimed the life of Priyanka More, 35, an assistant professor at YCCE College, Wanadongri. MIDC police registered a case of death due to negligence against the unidentified truck driver. She was on her way to college when a truck hit her two-wheeler. She was rushed to hospital, where doctors declared her dead.