New Delhi: September 4, 2008 -  A day after his conviction in the hit-and-run case, the lawyers for Sanjeev Nanda pleaded before the trial court for leniency while sentencing him, drawing its attention to his "excellent conduct in jail". They also claimed that he was the victim of a "media trial".

Following the conclusion of arguments, additional sessions judge Vinod Kumar reserved the order on the quantum of sentence for September 5. Arguing before the court, special public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan sought a maximum punishment of 10 years for Nanda, saying it "should be of the kind which is a deterrent to society so that a right message is sent to all potential offenders."

The prosecution referred to the observations made by the court in the judgment holding Nanda guilty for mowing down six people, including three policemen, in an inebrited state in 1999.

"The criminal justice system has been tampered with by the mighty accused, who resorted to every unfair way to botch up the trial. The maximum punishment should be awarded so that in future, the mighty may refrain from polluting the justice delivery system," Mohan said.

Questioning the conduct of Nanda soon after the accident, Mohan said, "No efforts were made by the convict to provide immediate medical help to the injured. Instead, he fled from the spot." Strongly opposing the arguments of the prosecution, Nanda's counsel, Ramesh Gupta, described the case as a "media trial".

"Some sections of the media projected Nanda as a culprit from the very beginning. If acquittal had happened in this case, they could have said it was a miscarriage of justice," he said.

"It's high time everybody sits up as justice is at stake," he warned, questioning the credibility of the key witness, Sunil Kulkarni, saying nothing was said about his dubious character. He said the fact that Nanda was merely 19 years of age at the time of incident should not be ignored. Discussing Nanda's conduct, Gupta said, "He also faced the trauma of a protracted trial for nine years besides the fact that he was behind bars for almost 10 months. The defence never took unnecessary adjournments in the case."

Citing various apex court decisions, Gupta pressed for relief, saying it was a fit case in which the convict could be given the benefit of the Probation of Offender Act. "We have given Rs 65 lakh as compensation to the families of the six deceased and one survivor. This fact should also be borne in mind while awarding punishment to him," he said.  Full Story