KRUSHNA CHANDRA OJHA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, driver of a Plymouth car, has been convicted under Sections 279/304 -A, I.P.C. and sentenced to R.I. for three months and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/ - or in default suffer R.I. for 11/2 months more. The learned Magistrate further directed that if fine be realised the entire amount be paid under Section 545 Criminal Procedure Code to the legal representatives of the deceased. The appeal has been dismissed.

(2.) THE prosecution case in brief is that at about 5.30 p.m. on 19.11.1966 the petitioner was driving a Plymouth car bearing registration No. ORJ. 766 on the road from Bhubaneswar to Puri. At a place of about 10 miles before Puri the vehicle is said to have dashed against a pedestrian named Budhi Jena who died at the spot. The matter was reported to the police on the same day and after due investigation the petitioner was charge -sheeted. The plea of the accused was that the vehicle was not running rashly and the deceased came and dashed against the vehicle and sustained the injury leading to his death. At the trial nine witnesses were examined for the prosecution. The defence did not examine any witness. According to P.W. 1, he and the deceased were going together and he is the only witness who saw the actual occurrence. P.W. 7, a Government Officer, was returning in a car from Puri side and reached the spot a little while after the incident. According to him the car was left at the spot and the owner of the car along with the other, members of his family were brought by him to the Police Station. Later on the accused came with the car to the Police Station. The Motor Vehicles Inspector has been examined as P.W. 6. His report (Ext. 5) shows that the vehicle did not have any mechanical defect and he was of the view that the vehicle must have been running at a speed of 25 miles per hour.

(3.) THE next contention is that the vehicle was in order and was driven at a small speed of 25 miles per hour and the condition of the road was good. From the evidence of the prosecution it appears that the road was wide enough. It was a heavy car and, therefore, the speed of 25 miles per hour as spoken to by the Motor Vehicles Inspector cannot be considered to be at all objectionable from any point of view. P.W. 1 who was going along with the deceased on the road at the time of the incident says that even though the time was about 5.30 p.m. the head lights of the car were on. P.W. 6 found the vehicle still on the tarred portion. As the evidence stands it is indeed difficult to hold that the incident was not anything other than an accident.