BMW hit and run case: Delhi court rejects Nandas bail plea

New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Delhi High Court today rejected the bail plea of Sanjiv Nanda, sentenced to five years jail term by a city court for mowing down six persons with his BMW car in 1999.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the city police on a petition filed by Nanda challenging a lower court's decision to sentence him to five years.

Justice Kailash Gambhir sought a response from the police after briefly hearing the contentions of Nanda.

Nanda approached the High Court against his conviction and quantum of sentence awarded to him by the lower court.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Nanda, contended that no incriminating circumstance appeared against him and the trial court had wrongly convicted him due to publicity in the media.

Seeking bail from the court, Nanda contended that the trial court has accepted the testimony of controversial prosecution eye-witness Sunil Kulkarni which is not reliable as he was in Mumbai and not in Delhi at the time of accident.

On September 5, Nanda was sentenced to five years in jail by a Delhi court.

Among the three other convicts, businessman Rajiv Gupta was awarded one year jail term while his two servants, Bhola Nath and Shyam Singh, were sentenced to six months jail term for destruction of evidence as they had washed the blood stains and victims'''' flesh pieces from the offending vehicle at a house in Golf Links area here.

The court convicted Nanda under the Section 304 (2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), dealing with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The law prescribes ten years imprisonment as maximum punishment.

The ten-year-old case involving Nanda, son of arms dealer Suresh Nanda and grandson of former Navy chief S.M. Nanda, allegedly in an inebriated state is accused of mowing down seven people with his high speeding BMW car in the wee hours of January 10, 1999 in Lodhi Colony area. Six persons died on the spot while one survived.

ANI