BHASKARAN NAIR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In C. C. 198 of 1980 the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Neyyattinkara convicted the revision petitioner for offences punishable under S.279 and 304A IPC. He was sentenced to simple imprisonment for six months and Rs. 1,000/- fine for the offence under S.304A without any separate sentence for the offence under S.279. His driving licence was also suspended for one year. In Criminal Appeal 133 of 1981 the Sessions Judge, Trivandrum confirmed the conviction and sentence.

(2.) The incident happened at 5.15 p.m. on 19-5-80. Revision Petitioner is a driver in the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation. He was driving Bus No. N437 from south to north through the Neyyattinkara - Trivandrum road. Two bullock carts were going one after another from south to north itself through the same road. The bullock carts were keeping extreme left. The incident happened in the road near the Athiyannoor N. E. S Block Office. At that place the road is straight having visibility of 220 metres to the north and 200 metres to the south. The tarred road is 6 55 metres wide. Western foot path is 1.6 metres wide and the eastern one 2.3 metres. The bullock carts were going through the western extremity partly through the foot path and partly through the tarred portion. The deceased boy aged 13 was also coming from south to north in a bicycle. he attempted to overtake the two bullock carts. In that attempt he partly succeeded and almost overtook one of the bullock carts. It was at that time that the bus driven by the revision petitioner reached the scene. Instead of waiting for the cyclist to over take the bullock carts the revision petitioner attempted to overtake the two bullock carts and the bicycle when the cyclist was in between the bus and the bullock carts. The bus came in high speed without sounding horn and overtaking was also in the same speed. Front portion of the bus hit against the back of the bicycle. The boy was overthrown. The rear left wheel of the bus ran over him and he was dragged to a distance of 5 metres. He died on the spot. This is the prosecution case supported by the scene mahazar and PWs 2, 3, 4 and 7 who are the occurrence witnesses. The concurrent findings of the Magistrate and the Sessions Judge are also to this effect.

(3.) Defence version is denial of the presence of the two bullock carts on the road It is said that the deceased boy who was not properly experienced in cycling all on a sudden attempted to cross the road and the revision petitioner was taken unawares. He reached the middle of the road. To save him the bus was swerved to the right and brake applied. But the bicycle hit the left side of the bus and revision petitioner did not know what happened. Only after stopping the bus he knew what happened.