Supreme Court sets Sanjeev Nanda Free in BMW hit and run Case

The Supreme Court of India has  upheld the Delhi High Court order reducing the prison sentence of Sanjeev Nanda, the main accused in the January 1999 BMW hit-and-run case in the national capital, from five years to two years. Six people were killed in the Jan 10, 1999, accident.

Sanjeev Nanda Hit and Run Plot

The incident occurred at 4:50 AM early morning of January 10, 1999. Sanjeev Nanda was returning from a late night party in Gurgaon with friends Manik Kapoor & Siddharth Gupta. Both were in their early twenties and came from influential business families – Manik’s father Sudhir Kapoor runs a thriving export business was one of the closest to the Nanda Family.

Sanjeev had apparently been instructed by his parents not to drive that night, but was at the wheel anyway. There was a police checkpoint on Lodhi Road and it appears that the constable may have challenged the car, though it is also possible that the car was going so fast that it was out of control.

In any event, it is alleged that Sanjeev’s BMW crashed through all the people at the police checkpoint, immediately killing two constables – Rajan Kumar (25) (of 86th Battalion of the CRPF), Ram Raj (38) of Delhi Home Guard, and two others – Abdul Nasir (30) and Gulab (32), who were apparently being interrogated. Another policeman, Peru Lal (40) of the Delhi Home Guard, along with Mehendi Hassan, died later in hospital. The seventh victim, Manoj (32), survived, but is untraceable today.

After running through the policemen, he allegedly stopped the car to check the damage, saw people under the car, and according to the prosecution, at this point co-passenger Manik Kapoor said: ‘‘Let’s go,’’ and they quickly drove away. 

The car was then driven to Siddharth Gupta’s house in Golf Links, where Siddharth’s father Rajiv Gupta, who heads the finance firm Motor General Finance, instructed watchman Bhola Nath and driver Shyam Singh Rana to clean the bumpers and bonnet of the car of the blood and vestiges of the victims. Subsequently the police charged these three with destroying evidence.

A few days later, a witness Sunil Kulkarni, came forward to describe the scene. At the time of the crash, he was on his way to the railway station. He deposed as follows on Jan 16, 1999:

“They were driving very fast. The car went to the side, crushing two people. A few others were thrown away. The driver got out and looked at the damage done to the car. Then the other person in the car came out and looked behind the car. Then they quickly drove off. I came to the police on the 15th because of my guilty conscience.”

Supreme Court’s Verdict

An apex court bench of Justice Deepak Verma and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan said that Sanjeev Nanda will undergo two years of community service, failing which, he will have to undergo a simple imprisonment of one year.

The court asked the ministry of social justice and empowerment to decide within two months on the community service that Nanda will be asked to perform.

The court directed Nanda to deposit Rs.50 lakh with central government, which in turn will create a fund to pay the victims of the 1999 road accident.

The court, describing Nanda’s action of speeding away from the spot of accident as “reprehensible”, said that he was interested in his own safety than saving lives of the victims.

Sanjeev Nanda was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment by trial court under Section 304 Part II of Indian Penal Code (culpable homicide amounting to murder) instead of Part A of Section 304 of rash and negligent driving.