In a second successive triumph, Vijit Singh, the former Jaipur royal got a major relief when the Rajasthan high court declined to cancel his bail in the hit-and-run case on Tuesday.

A day earlier a city lower court granted him bail in another police case related to the same accident in which a college student from Kota was killed and her four colleagues were injured in December last. Singh is accused of causing the accident while driving a high-end car in a highly inebriated state.

The single bench of Justice Mahesh Bhagwati dismissed the appeals by the state government and the deceased girl's father, Chandra Pal Singh Chaudhary, to cancel Singh's bail. In a detailed 24-page judgment, Justice Bhagwati castigated the city police for its "pandering approach" for suddenly changing the charges against Singh from bailable to non-bailable ones. Emphasising that the laws be applied "equally with equanimity" to all citizens irrespective of their status, the single bench expressed surprise at the police slapping IPC section 304 against Singh when in similar accident cases all over the state it was invoking IPC section 304-A. The judge went on to suggest that the legislature amend the law if it is insufficient to cope with the challenges posed by alarmingly increasing hit-and-run accidents, especially by drunk drivers.

Justice Bhagwati turned down the pleas for bail cancellation merely on the ground that the police have now added non-bailable charge against the accused. The bench then pointed towards discrepancies in the police investigation.

The step-grandson of former Jaipur maharani Gayatri Devi was arrested immediately after the accident on December 15 night, but promptly set free by the city police that booked him for bailable charges under IPC sections 279 (rash and negligent driving), 337 (causing simple injury) and 304-A (culpable homicide, bailable). Seven days later, following the public protests, media attention and the chief minister's intervention, the police changed IPC section 304-A to 304 (culpable homicide, non-bailable) and added section 338 (causing grievous injury).

Court’s observation

Justice Bhagwati observed that IPC section 304 is invoked when the accused commits offence (culpable homicide) with an intention or knowledge

While section 304-A is applied when the offence results from rash and negligent act

Judge said that while applying IPC section 279 for causing injury to the four students the police call the accused's act rash and negligent  

And at the same time while applying IPC section 304 for causing the death of the fifth student, the police say the accused had intention and knowledge

Justice Bhagwati, Rajasthan high court

How can a person be rash and negligent and also have intention and knowledge, when he is sozzled, while committing an offence in one transaction?”

DNA Correspondent/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication