A sessions court has convicted a driver who had rammed into a scooter driven by a 17-year-old, and dumped the accident victim’s body into Vasai lake; the body was never recovered
A Mumbai Sessions court has convicted a 42-year-old driver who had rammed a scooter with his car on June 16, 2011. On the pretext of taking him to hospital, the driver threw the accident victim, Nasir Ahmed, into Vasai lake. The accused Simon Substrin is a resident of Cheetah Camp.
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Judge D G Murumkar sentenced Substrin to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment under section 304 (2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC with a fine of Rs 5,000. Public Prosecutor Vijay Malankar examined nine witnesses including two eyewitnesses in the case.
The eyewitnesses, who saw the accident, also witnessed Simon putting the deceased Ahmed (17) in the car and deposed in court. The court also cross-examined a magistrate before whom Simon had given his confessional statement. The body has not been recovered till date.
The case
The incident happened on June 16, 2011 outside a bank near Mandala in the vicinity of BARC in Trombay. It was around 9 am when Ahmed was travelling on his Kinetic Honda when the Maruti Omni driver lost control and collided head-on with the bike.
The driver and two others put him in the car and drove off, saying that they were taking Ahmed to hospital. However instead of taking him to hospital, the driver threw Ahmed into Vasai lake.
Three hours later, Ahmed’s parents, who had been searching for their son, received a call from a person who had been at the accident spot. Ahmed had left home at 8 am to drop his sister at school where she teaches, and the accident had taken place while he was coming back.
His parents lodged a missing person complaint. For two months after the incident, Ahmed was still missing and the parents were unclear about what had happen to their son. Ahmed’s parents could not get the police to register a kidnapping case.
They then approached the HC. On August 24, 2011, the High Court directed the police to lodge a kidnapping case against the driver. He was also charged with murder.