All witnesses hostile, woman in fatal DUI case walks free

MUMBAI: A magistrate court acquitted a 20-year-old college student last week who was accused of driving drunk and causing the death of a cab driver by jumping over the divider on the J J flyover in 2015. The court found the accused, Ashvi Shah, not guilty after the cabbie Rameshkumar Gupta’s (40) wife, Suman Gupta, brother-in-law Guddu Gupta and two eye witnesses turned hostile during the trial.
The court was informed that Rameshkumar’s wife had reached a settlement with Shah and she did not want to pursue the case. However, the court held that the offence under IPC section 304 A (death caused by negligence) was not compoundable (cannot be settled) and that the trial had to be conducted. The cab’s passenger who also suffered injuries in the incident could not be traced by the police. The court held that it could not be proved that Shah was driving under the influence of alcohol.
The court further said that there was no mention that cops had taken Shah’s breath analyzer test after her arrest and the cop who deposed was silent on this aspect. Gupta, the sole earning member of his family was survived by his wife and two minor children. Shah denied that she was driving the car at the time of the incident.
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References

1. ^{^} court (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

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