Murder charge on drivers for deaths

TT, Oct. 21: Police in Bengal will slap the murder charge on drivers involved in road accidents causing death and the attempt to murder charge in case of accidents causing injuries, instructions issued by the director-general of police suggest.

Today, the police booked for murder the driver and an occupant of a car that hit three teenaged girls in Mahishadal, East Midnapore, last evening, killing one of them. The murder charge was slapped on both because it is unclear who was driving the car, police sources said.

According to the sources, this is the first time in recent memory that the murder charge has been pressed in a road accident case.

On Tuesday, Mamata Banerjee's nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee was injured in a road accident on Durgapur Expressway near Singur.

Yesterday, Bengal DGP Surajit Kar Purkayastha instructed senior police officers to deal with accident cases strictly and book the drivers under stringent sections, including the one dealing with murder.

In his verbal instructions, Kar Purkayastha also asked the police to bring the charge of attempt to murder on the driver in case the accident causes injuries but no fatality.

The police in Hooghly's Haripal have registered the attempt to murder charge against "unknown person(s)" in the accident involving Abhishek.

Till now, the police had been booking errant drivers for causing death due to negligence and, sometimes, culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

When the Left was in power, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had instructed the police to lodge the culpable homicide not amounting to murder charge in case of fatal accidents, but the move was stalled after transport unions threatened strikes and agitations.

The murder charge invites a maximum punishment of death or life in jail.

The IPC Section 304A, which deals with causing death due to negligence, is a bailable offence and carriers a maximum punishment of two years in jail. In some serious cases, the police book drivers under the IPC Section 304, which deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. This carries a maximum punishment of a life term.

Calcutta police had slapped the murder charge on Sambia Sohrab, who was driving a white Audi Q7 that broke through multiple cordons and killed air force corporal Abhimanyu Gaud during the Republic Day parade rehearsal on Red Road earlier this year.

Sources said the murder charge was brought on the instructions of the chief minister.