Chandigarh doctor booked under IPC 304 in connection with road accident case

The doctor was earlier booked under section 304A of IPC under the charges of death due to negligent driving which clearly means two years imprisonment along with a fine.

However, in recent progress, police have dropped the previous charges and will arrest the doctor once again under the new charges. The case is connected to a road accident that took place near 66KV light point on December 1, 2020.

In the accident, a woman was killed and her husband also received severe injuries. Thereafter, the doctor was placed under arrest for negligent driving on December 2nd, 2020. The medical examination of the doctor indicated that he was under the influence of alcohol while driving. Though the doctor was already arrested, he has now been booked again under new charges.

As per a recent report by The Indian Express, police had submitted the challan against the doctor under Section 304A of the IPC which contains two-year imprisonment along with a fine, in the district courts, Sector 43. However, the district attorney, on scrutinizing the challan found that that the medical opinion of the doctors clearly indicated that the accused was driving in a drunk state at the time of the road accident.

"But when the District Attorney, who scrutinized the challan before the final submission, saw the attached medical opinion of doctors that the drive was drunk at the time of road accident, he ordered the removal of Section 304A and directed to insert Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) which contains ten years imprisonment and convict is also liable for fine. There are very few road accident cases involving the loss of human lives where section 304 is slapped against the accused drivers," sources told the daily.

SI Gurmeet Singh, the probe officer told The Indian Express that police are trying to arrest the doctor again under the new charges. He had earlier applied for anticipatory bail in the lower court but it got rejected. He again moved the Punjab Haryana High court but later withdrew the bail application.

" We have submitted our response in the district courts-43 urging that custodial interrogation of the suspect is required," he added.

Addressing the new development, the husband of the victim told the daily, "I came to know about the development recently, but the police have failed to rearrest him. Whenever I enquired, cops maintained that their efforts are on. My wife was a homemaker and she left behind a six-year-old daughter.