Merc-hit-and-run: Court gives nod to police for further probe

Police sought the court’s permission to further probe the case saying some new facts have emerged in matter and it has come to their knowledge that before this hit-and-run case, the boy was also challaned for over-speeding in which he had shown a “false and forged driving licence” to the traffic police.

Additional Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav while allowing the application fixed the matter for September 26 for further proceedings. The accused had turned major four days after the April 4 incident.

Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava argued that before this incident, the juvenile was challaned for over- speeding as he was driving this Mercedes car at a speed of 89 kms per hour. “When a challan was issued, he showed a driving licence to the traffic personnel and claimed it was issued from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh. A report has been received from the authorities concerned in Etawah which says the driving licence was not issued by them. This shows it was a false and forged driving licence,” he said.

The plea was opposed by the counsel for the boy on the ground that he was a juvenile and the police knew about the licence before and there was no fresh evidence.

Police had said in its charge sheet that the boy had fatally run over victim Siddharth Sharma with his father’s Mercedes when the victim was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School in north Delhi on April 4.

The Juvenile Justice Board had on June 4 ordered that the boy would face trial as an adult while observing that the offence allegedly committed by him was “heinous”. It is the first of its kind case since the amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 which allowed the Board to transfer cases of heinous offences by children to the sessions court.