Bombay High Court grants bail to J J Hospital doctor held in fatal car crash

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a resident doctor of the staterun and citybased J J Hospital who was arrested on the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder after his car rammed into a motorcycle earlier this year killing the riderA single bench of Justice Bharati Dangre in her order passed on September 26 a copy of which was made available on Wednesday noted that since the investigation in the case was over accused doctor Rihan Kalathils further incarceration was unnecessaryKalathils car had collided with the motorcycle in the early morning of March 28 this year on a brigde in south Mumbai Due to the collision the motorcycle rider25yearold Aditya Desai was fell from the bridge and was declared dead in the hospital laterWhile the police claimed that Kalathil was heavily drunk the latter in his bail plea refuted it and said he was not drunk to the level that he could not control his carIn his plea Kalathil had said he could not be charged under the Indian Penal Code IPC section 304 II culpable homicide not amounting to murder and that at the most he ought to be charged under the lesser section of 304 A causing death by negligenceJustice Dangre in her order noted the basic rule of criminal system was bail is the rule and jail is an exceptionAlso Read Money laundering case Bombay HC reserves judgment on Anil Deshmukhs bail pleaPunishment begins after conviction and every man is deemed to be innocent until duly tried and pronounced guilty the court said while granting bail to Kalathil on a bond of Rs 50000The court in its order took note of the witness statements that there was no divider on the said road and that Kalathil was driving his car in the middle of the road but was not speedingIt added that when Kalathil saw a bike approaching from the opposite direction he swerved to the right but unfortunately the bike too swerved to the same side and there was a headon collisionJustice Dangre noted that the witness statements primafacie reflect the conscious sense of Kalathil who made an attempt to avoid the headon collision instead of establishing the prosecution case that the alcohol had disturbed his metabolismThe court added that in the present case the level of alcohol in the blood of Kalathil was below the prescribed limitNo doubt when a person consumes alcohol it may have the effect on his reflexes but full effects of liquor would depend upon the amount consumed the rate of consumption gender body weight and whether drink has been consumed on empty stomach or full stomach and dependent upon this the aftereffect of intoxication will have to be judged the court saidSame quantity of drinks may not necessarily produce similar effect in each individual and it may vary and depend upon the persons size metabolism ethnicity and other factors it addedKalathils counsel Aabad Ponda claimed that Kalathil was a doctor by profession and a meritorious student whose further studies were being hampered due to his arrestAdvocate Rizwan Merchant appearing for victim Aditya Desais mother opposed the bail and said the family had lost their sole breadwinnerThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever