Delhi Hit And Run Case | CCTV Footage Of The Accident Revealed | Full Video

In a first, minor's dad held in Delhi hit-and-run case

NEW DELHI: In a twist to the Mercedes hit-and-run case that claimed the life of 32-year-old Siddharth Sharma, police have slapped graver charges - culpable homicide - on the juvenile driver after learning that he was a repeat offender and arrested his father for abetting the crime.The juvenile, who turned 18 on Friday, will be again taken into custody on Saturday for this offence, police said. He was earlier charged with causing death due to negligence.The stricter action comes after police found the juvenile driver was involved in another road accident in the same area. They have recorded the statement of the person whose car he had hit that time. Both father and son will be chargesheeted in the case.DCP (north) Madhur Verma confirmed the developments to TOI. Both the arrest of the father under section 109 of IPC and application of the stricter section 304 II in an accident case involving a minor are probably the first such instances in Delhi.The traffic police also found that the Mercedes S-200K car (DL 2F CM 3000) had been booked for speeding and rash driving thrice in the past. A notice for speeding was sent in March this year and two challans issued in April and June last year. The last notice went unattended, leading to suspicion that the juvenile could be driving on that occasion as well.Sharma, a business consultant, had been crushed to death by the juvenile driver, who was out on a joyride with friends, on north Delhi's Sham Nath Marg late Monday evening. The charge of culpable homicide is rarely applied even on road offenders who aren't minors. The section has been invoked in a handful of fatal accident cases and instances when policemen have been deliberately killed by speeding vehicles.In the past, the police have converted the case to that of culpable homicide in the Salman Khan alleged hit-and-run case and the Sanjeev Nanda BMW case.Neighbours of the juvenile, who stays at Oberoi Apartment on Sham Nath Marg, claim they have seen the car speeding down the road on several occasions."Not a single step was taken by the father of the accused, Chawri Bazar businessman Manoj Aggarwal, to stop the boy from driving the car. This is an act of criminal omission, thereby abetting the crime of the juvenile. He has thus been arrested," DCP Verma added.On the boy, Verma said police had invoked section 304 II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) instead of 304A slapped earlier, in the wake of his past conduct."Apart from accidents, CCTV footages of the area indicate that the possibility of the juvenile being aware that his extremely fast driving in a residential area can cause a death, cannot be ruled out," he said. On March 3 this year, a passerby noticed the Mercedes speeding down Rajpur Road near the lieutenant governor's residence and clicked a photograph of the car. He then sent it to the traffic police, following which a notice was issued to the owner of the vehicle.Police officers said that a challan of Rs 1,000 was issued against the driver, but he failed to appear before the traffic officer at the Civil Lines circle. The identity of the driver hasn't been established but officers said that they were probing whether the accused juvenile was driving the car.The Mercedes figured in two more challans issued for speeding and rash driving in April and June last year. The driver was fined for speeding on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and Netaji Subhash Marg and warned that another offence would lead to impounding of his licence, a police officer said.