Brian McDonald
New Delhi – Indian justice officials changed course amid outrage over bail terms set for a teenager accused of killing two people while driving a Porsche at high speed, drunk and without a driver’s license. The 17-year-old son of a wealthy businessman was ordered to write a 300-word essay and work with the local traffic police for 15 days to receive bail – a decision that was made 15 hours after his arrest.
He is accused of killing two young men while speeding in his luxury car on Sunday in the western Indian city of Pune.
The lenient bail conditions initially imposed by the local Juvenile Justice Board shocked many people, including authorities, across India. Local police approached the council with a plea to cancel his bail and asking for permission to treat the boy, who is just four months shy of his 18th birthday, as an adult, arguing that his alleged crime was heinous in nature.
In 2015, India changed its laws to allow minors between the ages of 16 and 18 to be tried as adults if they are accused of crimes considered heinous. The change was prompted by the notorious 2012 Delhi rape case, in which one of the convicts was a minor. Many activists argued that if he was old enough to commit a brutal rape, he should not be treated as a minor.
On Wednesday night, after three days of outrage over the initial decision, the Juvenile Justice Board canceled the teen’s bail and sent him to a juvenile detention center until June 5. to see him face a more serious potential sentence would be taken after further investigation.
On Sunday night, police said the teenager, after drinking with friends at two local bars in Pune, left in his Porsche Taycan, speeding down narrow roads and allegedly crashing into a motorcycle, sending the two victims – a man and a woman woman, both 24 years old. -former software engineers – flying through the air and killing them.
Parents of both victims urged authorities to ensure strict punishment for the teenager.
The suspect was initially charged with causing death by negligence, but the charge was changed to a more serious charge of manslaughter that does not amount to murder. On Wednesday, he was also charged with drunk driving offenses.
Police arrested the suspect’s father and charged him with allowing his son to drive despite being a minor, according to Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar. The legal driving age in India is 18 years. The owners of the two bars where alcohol was served to the minor were also arrested and their premises seized.
“We have taken the strictest approach possible and will do everything in our power to ensure that the two young lives that were lost get justice and that the accused is appropriately punished,” Kumar said.
Maharashtra state deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis described the Juvenile Justice Board’s original decision as “lenient” and “shocking” and called the public outrage a reasonable reaction.
Sunil Ghosh/Hindustan Times/Getty
Road accidents have claimed more than 168,000 lives in India as of 2021. More than 1,500 of these people have died in accidents caused by drunk driving, according to Indian government data.
Under Indian law, a person convicted of drunk driving can face a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a fine of around $120 for a first offense. If, however, drunk driving leads to the death of another person, the offender could face two to seven years in prison.
