Gandhinagar: Too ill to drive? Face homicide charge in case of an accident

AHMEDABAD: Unwell? You may want someone else to drive you home. A Gandhinagar executive, involved in a fatal accident, has been charged with a serious offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder after he revealed that he was suffering high fever and nausea. The man said he had taken medicine to control fever and suffered giddiness while at the wheel.

Cops at the Infocity police station in Gandhinagar said that a complaint under Section 304 (A) for negligence causing death and rash driving was filed against an unknown person after a 25-year old woman Krishna Pandya was killed in a road accident on Koba-Gandhinagar road near Raysan on October 12.

Krishna and her finace Vijay Shrimali were going home after shopping for their engagement on October 13. Tragedy struck when they were reportedly hit by a four-wheeler. In the accident, Krishna was killed and Vijay injured.

Police said a month-long investigation led them to Kiran Desai's house in Gandhinagar. After knowing that Desai has chosen to drive despite being very unwell, cops invoked more serious offence under IPC section 304.

"Following his questioning, it was found to be a rare case where the accused chose to drive despite being very ill, thereby knowingly endangering lives of others. Hence, we have charged him with IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) on November 14," said Rajput.

Cops said that Desai's car did not have a registration number as he had applied for registration. With inputs from eye-witnesses and CCTV footage, they tracked down Desai who was driving an automatic car.

The two-wheeler involved in the accident had scratches on the right foot-rest which matched with scratches on left side of Desai's car.

Accused says he was unwell on fateful day

When questioned if he was involved in any accident, Kiran said that he was suffering from high fever on October 12.

“He told us that he had taken paracetamol medicine and went to office in Ahmedabad. There too, he did not recover and after having lunch had to lie down for sometime. When his condition did not improve, he took another fever medicine and left office for home driving his car along with his assistant," said a police official.

"On the way, the accused said he suffered giddiness and felt as if his car struck something. Driving a little further, he became sicker and his assistant called up his brother to drive them home. The accused insisted that the assistant go back and check if some accident had happened but they found no such trace," said Rajput.

Cops said the next day on October 13, Desai got admitted in a private hospital. He was admitted for a week after being diagnosed with suffering pneumonia, cops said.