In a major relief to businessman Sanjeev Nanda in the infamous BMW hit-and-run case, the Supreme Court on Friday decided against enhancing his sentence of two-year jail term in the case.
A bench of Justices Deepak Verma and K S Radhakrishnan, however, directed the grandson of former Naval chief S M Nanda to do two years’ community service and pay Rs 50 lakh to the centre for the welfare of the road accident victims.
The apex court set aside the Delhi High Court verdict holding him guilty under the milder provision of Section 304A (rash and negligent driving) of the Indian Penal Code and instead convicted him under harsher Section 304 Part II which entailed a maximum 10 years jail term. But the bench did not enhance his sentence and confirmed the two-year jail term that he had already served.
Passing its order on the Delhi police appeal, the court castigated Nanda, son of arms dealer Suresh Nanda, for failing to show any mercy to the victims after the incident in which he had mowed down six people including three police men with his car on January 10,1999. It termed his conduct “highly reprehensible”.
The Delhi High Court had in July 2009 reduced Nanda’s sentence from five years to two.