Mercedes-hit-and-run: Teenager's mother gets anticipatory bail

Mother of a teenager, accused of running over a 32-year-old man while driving his father's Mercedes last year, was today granted anticipatory bail by a Delhi court in a case of allegedly abetting the offence.
Additional Sessions Judge S K Sharma gave the relief to Indu Aggarwal, who was also accused of abetting the offence of destroying the evidence and giving false information, saying the investigation has been completed in the case.
"In view of the fact that the during probe applicant/ accused (woman) was not arrested and now the investigation is complete, the application is allowed... Subject to the condition that the applicant shall not indulge in any such activity which can be prejudicial to the fair trial of the case," the court said while granting her bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 30,000 and surety of like amount.

Advocate Jinendra Jain, who appeared for the woman, sought anticipatory bail for her saying she has joined the probe and was ready to cooperate and that her custodial interrogation was not required as charge sheet has already been filed.
Special public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava opposed the plea saying the woman was the mother of the accused, a juvenile at the time of the offence.
Meanwhile, the parents of the teenager, who turned major four days after the April 4, 2016 accident, appeared before link magistrate Sachin Sangwan.

The court had on March 25 summoned the teenager's parents businessman Manoj Aggarwal and Indu Aggarwal as accused after taking cognisance of a charge sheet for allegedly abetting the offences of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, destruction of evidence and giving false information under the IPC and under provisions of Motor Vehicles Act.

The couple's driver Kapil, who was chargesheeted for allegedly making contradictory statements, also appeared before the court. Manoj Aggarwal and Kapil, who were earlier arrested, are already out on bail.
The court listed the case for May 8 before the concerned magistrate, who was on leave today, for supplying copies of charge sheet to the accused.
Police had alleged that the parents of the teenager were booked for giving the keys to their son knowing that he was not an adult. According to the police, the teenager had been a regular offender of the traffic rules and regulations and the parents overlooked that by handing him the keys of the car.

The police had on May 26, 2016 chargesheeted the boy in Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) for culpable homicide not amounting to murder which entails a maximum of 10 years jail.
In the charge sheet against the boy, police had said he had fatally run over victim Siddharth Sharma with his father's Mercedes when the victim was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School in north Delhi on April 4 last year.
The JJB had on June 4 last year ordered that the boy would face trial as an adult while observing that the offence allegedly committed by him was "heinous".

It is the first-of-its-kind case since the amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 which allowed the Board to transfer cases of heinous offences by children to the sessions court.
The driver had earlier claimed that he was driving the Mercedes at the time of incident but had done a volte-face after he got to know the victim was dead.