Woman who knocked down jumper gets clemency to be a woman

A criminal court has shown leniency to a housewife convicted of driving her car recklessly, which led to a 23-year-old woman on a two-wheeler sustaining serious injuries in 2015. It said that it was a woman with children and that sending her to prison will ruin her family.

Victim Gayatri Zaveri had testified in court that she drove to work on July 6, 2015 on her Activa scooter in the morning at 7am. She had reached Jayaraj Nagar Signal on New Link Road, Borivali when a car rammed her vehicle. She said she threw five feet in the air from the impact and fell. She told the court that she had difficulty breathing immediately after the crash.

She was taken to Karuna Hospital by the driver of the car – Rina D’Souza and a passerby. She had suffered a broken leg and internal bleeding in her chest as a result of the accident. The passerby who helped take Zaveri to the hospital also testified as an eyewitness in court.

The court said in its judgment: “It is the duty of the driver of a vehicle coming from a road which joins the main road to look around for traffic and then turn the vehicle towards the main road… if had the accused taken so much care, the accident could have been avoided…Therefore, it can be clearly said that the accused breached this duty of care and that her breach of this duty caused the accident.

The woman had asked for clemency after being found guilty. She said it was the first time she had been convicted of an offense and she is a housewife with two children, one of whom is a minor. In deciding the amount of the sentence for the woman, the court considered that this was the defendant’s first conviction. He also noted that she took the victim to the hospital and did not run away.

“Furthermore, the accused is a woman. She is around 50 years old. Her family depends on her. She states that she has a minor son and a daughter,” Metropolitan Magistrate AP Khanorkar said in the judgment delivered on April 6, adding that if she is sent to prison, her family will be ruined. The court then extended the benefit of the Offenders’ Probation Act under which a person, usually young first-time offenders, can be released on good behavior bail, instead of being sentenced.

The court, however, ordered D’Souza to pay compensation of Rs. 10,000 to Zaveri. “Because of the accident, she naturally may have incurred expenses as she suffered serious injuries,” he noted. In addition, due to the accident, he said, she would have suffered mental trauma. It would be fair and proper, the court said, for her to be compensated for the mental and physical agony caused by the accident, through no fault of her own.

Posted: Friday, April 15, 2022, 11:59 PM IST