20 January,2012 04:26 PM IST | | Agencies
City-based businessman Alistair Pereira, sentenced to three years in jail for mowing down seven persons in 2006, was today sent to prison after he surrendered before the police, over a week after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and cancelled his bail.
"Pereira surrendered before us this morning. The Sewri Court had issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him last evening," Mangesh Pote, Senior Inspector at Khar Police Station, told PTI.
The police then took Pereira to the Sewri Sessions Court, which had tried him.
After being presented before the Judge and completion of formalities at around 2.30 pm, the 27- year-old was sent to Arthur Road Jail in Central Mumbai.
On Monday, Pereira had surrendered before the Sewri Court.
However, he was sent back home as a certified copy of the apex court order was not received either by the police or the Sessions Court.
The apex court had on January 12 upheld the three-year jail term awarded to Pereira for running over seven persons sleeping on pavement in suburban Bandra on November 12, 2006.
The court had gone on to observe that the punishment for the "despicable aggravated offence" was "too meagre".
The apex court, concurring with the Bombay High Court's verdict of holding Pereira guilty for the offence, also said the sentence could not be enhanced as Maharashtra Government had not filed an appeal challenging the jail term.
The SC had cancelled the businessman's bail and asked him to "forthwith" surrender for undergoing the remaining sentence as awarded by the High Court in 2007.
The HC had enhanced the six-month imprisonment, awarded by the trial court, to three years and also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Pereira.
