“The grant of handsome compensation to families of the victims after a very short duration from the offence leans heavily in favour of the convict,” Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vinod Kumar said on Friday.

Nanda, grandson of former Navy chief S M Nanda, faced a maximum of 10 years imprisonment under IPC Section 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Co-accused Rajeev Gupta, father of Nanda’s friend, got one-year imprisonment and his employees Bhola Nath and Shyam Singh were each sentenced to six months in jail for destroying evidence — they washed off bloodstains and pieces of flesh from Nanda’s BMW car following the accident. All three were released on bail after the sentences were suspended till filing of appeal in High Court.

Drawing a parallel with Alistair Pereira’s case — the Mumbai youth, driving inebriated, had crushed seven persons in November 2006 — the court said Nanda’s offence was “much more grave” since he fled the spot even as some victims remained entangled in his wheels.

Nanda, the court noted, had consumed more alcohol than Pereira and hit victims standing on the road, while Pereira’s victims were sleeping on the footpath.

The Mumbai High Court last year sentenced Pereira to three years’ rigorous imprisonment, overruling a lower court decision of six-month jail term.

ASJ Kumar also turned down the contention seeking leniency in view of Nanda’s young age — he was 21 then. The court said he, instead, should have had a “higher degree of knowledge” of consequences of drunken driving since he was studying in the US at the time and had his driving licence issued from Boston.

The US has “zero tolerance laws” for those caught driving under the influence of alcohol.