A Bengaluru sessions court denied bail to an ambulance driver who was arrested earlier this month after his vehicle hit a car coming from the opposite direction killing a family of five near Yelahanka, according to reports.
The ambulance driver, driving a government-run ambulance of the National Ambulance Service, jumped the median of the Ballari road elevated expressway and hit a car coming in the opposite direction on May 27. The ambulance was heading towards the airport.
Channabasappa, the 30-year-old ambulance driver, told the sessions court that he was attending an emergency case when the accident took place. He also said that he swerved towards the median to avoid hitting another vehicle which had suddenly braked.
However, a probe into the incident found that even though Channabasappa was on official duty, he was heading to his residence in Devanahalli.
The sessions court cited the famous Alister Anthony Pereira case of 2012 in its judgement. In the case, Alister was accused of mowing down seven persons in Mumbai's Carter Road and the Supreme Court, in its decision, noted that his negligent driving amounted to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
"Here is a case where the accused being a responsible government servant and having knowledge of the consequences of his act of driving, drove his vehicle in a rash and negligent manner, crossed the divider and hit an oncoming vehicle which resulted in the death of five innocent lives. Hence the act of the investigating officer in pressing section IPC 304 at this stage is valid," said K Narayana Prasad, 55th additional city, civil and sessions judge, as per Times of India.
The force of the accident was such that the car was mangled following the incident and firemen had to be brought in to lift the bodies out of the car.
Dipankar Dey (46); his wife, Swagata Chaudhury (42); their son, Dhruva Dey (14); Swagata’s sister, Sujaya (45) and their mother Jayanthi (65) lost their lives in the accident, as per The Hindu.