After a long wait of over nine years, the Indian Judicial system yesterday delivered its verdict in the infamous Delhi BMW Hit and Run case. As everyone knows by now it involved Sanjeev Nanda, a young man of 19 years, the grandson of the erstwhile Chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral S M Nanda and son of Suresh Nanda, a leading businessman of New Delhi, driving under the influence of liquor. He is now convicted of running over 6 bystanders including three policemen in the middle of a foggy winter night in early 1999. A verdict of Culpable Homicide not amounting to murder has been handed out. This carries a maximum of ten years in jail.That the young man's rich father attempted to bribe his way to secure acquittal for his son is despicable for the sheer audacity of trying to circumvent the legal system. Think of the message the father's actions must have sent to a young impressionable mind of a budding teenager studying business management in the US on a vacation in India. Gifting such an expensive car, costing more than a lifetime's earning for an average Indian, was bad enough but allowing him to show off his driving skills, impaired by alcohol, to a bunch of his friends on a foggy winter night was an unpardonable crime.
After that the father attempts to remove evidence, bribe witnesses, strike unholy deals with prosecution lawyer and even obfuscate matters to try and make it appear that a truck caused the accident. The legal system has shown exemplary courage to act against it's own by disbarring R K Anand and I U Khan, two well known names in legal practice in New Delhi and imposing fines.
The court would pronounce the sentence today. May be Sanjeev Nanda would be sent away for ten years. But can civil society ignore the fact that it was the father who is the actual perpetrator of the crime for the manner in which he tried to buy freedom for his son Sanjeev Nanda and also setting up a distorted value system in his son's impressionable mind. By not acting against him, the courts would be shying away from their duty.
Some critics may argue that this is perverse justice, a trial by the media or even a witch-hunt, where a rich man is expected to pay a stiff penalty for a crime committed by him whereas the same crime if committed by someone who is not so well off earns a lesser penalty or even an acquittal. Well, they may have a point about uneven application of the law but does it in any way take away from the fact that Sanjeev was responsible for the ghastly accident that killed six innocent people while, Mr. Nanda, your son was sozzled ? For you to say today that Sanjeev has suffered enough is ironic indeed.
Sanjeev, all men make mistakes in life. Greatness does not lie in running away from them, hiding them or trying to have your rich dad bribe witnesses or all things you and your dad have been doing. Real courage would lie in admitting wrong-doing, expressing remorse and making amends and rising above your follies like a phoenix. I am sure you have a long bright successful career ahead of you after you have erased this dark chapter of your life. So take heart and come back a stronger man, a real brave man.
No comments:
Post a Comment