Holding that no element of “knowledge” could be imputed on Nanda, the court noted that his act of mowing down six persons, including three policemen, with his car in December 1999 would invite criminal culpability limited to causing death by rash and negligent act.

The court order means that the 31-year-old son of international arms dealer Suresh Nanda would now have to spend just around a month in Tihar jail, as he has already undergone the remaining jail term after his arrest in the case and then following his conviction last September.

Pronouncing the verdict, Justice Kailash Gambhir said the criminal law required fixing the mental element on an accused to determine his culpability with respect to a crime.

“It was gruesome, macabre and heart rending. However, it is not the scene of occurrence or the number of deaths that will govern the complicity of the accused but whether it was done with the knowledge of such consequences or was it mere rashness or negligence on his part. The present case, in my view, despite the unfortunate death of six persons will fall under Section 304-A (causing death due to rash and negligent act) and not under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC,” held the court.

Nanda was in an inebriated state when the accident occurred.

The court, however, shot down Nanda’s appeal that he should be acquitted as the overstretched trial was a breach of his constitutional right to speedy trial, holding the perusal of the trial court records revealed that effective proceeding took place on most of the dates.

Pulling up Nanda for raising this plea, Justice Gambhir said, “He himself must share the burden of causing delay as with a view to hoodwink the prosecution and to escape from the clutches of law, he denied the factum of accident. It is only at the stage of final arguments before the trial court and in appeal, that the appellant turned honest to accept occurrence of the horrifying accident. A lot of time could have been saved had the accused been honest from day one and admitted his guilt.”

The court also struck down an attempt by Nanda’s counsel Ram Jethmalani to vitiate the trial court proceedings by charging the trial court judge of misapplying laws, attaching undue weightage to the testimony of Sunil Kulkarni and displaying his prejudice against the rich and mighty.

“One must be very restrained and careful before commenting on any Judge unless the conduct of a Judge is so reprehensible warranting condemnation. Faith of the public can be badly shaken in judiciary, if in a very casual fashion aspersions are cast on the conduct of the Judges, who at times are constrained to take unpleasant decisions,”Justice Gambhir said in his 274-page judgement.

At the same time, the court was critical of the fact that the trial court judge gave a chamber audience to controversial witness Sunil Kulkarni but refrained from recording this in the case file despite this being his “legal bounden duty.”

Taking stern view of Kulkarni’s flip-flops during the trial, the court ordered launching the prosecution against him under the charge of perjury and asked the High Court Registrar to lodge a complaint with a trial court.

The court also upheld the conviction of three others — businessman Rajeev Gupta and his two employees Bhola Nath and Shyam Singh — for destruction of evidence but halved their jail term.

Gupta’s sentence was reduced to a six-month prison term from one year awarded by a trial court. His two employees were awarded a three-month jail term, down from their six months’ sentence.

Next, wedding bells for 31-yr-old Nanda
After a prolonged legal wrangle spanning over a decade, marriage, it seems, is finally on the cards for Sanjeev Nanda.

“He is already 31, so marriage is certainly on the cards,” Sanjeev’s father Suresh Nanda told Newsline soon after the High Court judgment on Monday.

Asked about the marriage plans, the otherwise composed Suresh Nanda could not resist his euphoria. With a smile on his face, he said, “We would like him to get married soon and start a family.

“Sanjeev has already spent a part of his life fighting this legal battle and lost much of his youth. We hope the judgment would now help his life return to normalcy and peace.”

Nanda senior said Sanjeev was studying in the UK when the incident occurred and he could not return for his studies due to the court proceedings. But Nanda senior chose silence when asked whether his son was to get married to his long-time girlfriend, who has been presen on each important hearing.