Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
The 7th Additional district and session court convicted a 33-year-old labourer with 6.6 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs.1.04 lakh for a drunk and drive case he was involved killing two of his friends and injuring two others in March 2013 .
The convict Bhanukumar,resident of Parappana Agrahara aged 23 years old at that time was autorickshaw driver by profession.
He borrowed a SUV from his friend and went on a drive with his four friends .
Investigations revealed that Bhanukumar as in an inebriate state driving in rash and negligent manner lost control on Vittasandra flyover on NICE road on March 4, 2013 .
He rammed into divider jumped on the other side of the road and the car toppled .
Due to the impact his two friends Vishwanath,22 and Santosh,20 were killed on the spot two others Nikhil Kumar,23 and Manikantha,23 were grievously injured .
Senior officer told media persons,the then Electronics City traffic police inspector BK Shekhar sent the blood samples of all the survivors to Forensic Science Laboratory for alcohol test.
All the five had partied before going for a spin, the other two survivors said in their statements.
Besides other common sections of IPC, Bhanukumar was booked under section 304. He spent 26 days in judicial custody before getting bail.
In recent years, police have been invoking IPC Section 304 in fatal road accident cases involving drunk driving as against the earlier practice of invoking IPC Section 304A that pertains to causing death due to negligence.
The defence argued that there were no eyewitnesses to the accident and therefore, Bhanukumar should not be held guilty.
The prosecution successfully contended that the accident took place in the wee hours when there would be no eyewitnesses.
Besides, the injured persons had given statements saying how they partied that night and Bhanukumar was driving under the influence of alcohol,he said in his statement.
The Electronic city traffic police investigated the case and filed charge-sheet with the government.
