Mumbai: A sessions court on Friday refused to grant bail to BEST driver Sanjay More, who is accused of driving the bus negligently and killing nine people and injuring over 40. On December 9 around 9.30pm, the driver lost the vehicle’s control, ramming into pedestrians and vehicles at SG Barve Marg in Kurla.
Sessions judge VG Raghuvanshi, while rejecting More’s bail plea, said, “There are several witnesses who testified that More was driving in a rash and reckless manner.”
However, the defence claimed that the accused received only three days of training for driving the bus, whereas it is mandatory to have 15 days of training. Additionally, it was contended that he was not given the grounds for arrest in writing, which renders his arrest illegal.
The plea was opposed by public prosecutor Ajit Chavan, who argued that More had no psychological problems, was not intoxicated at the time of the incident and that there were no mechanical faults in the bus. Chavan emphasised that the applicant had driven the electric bus for about 728 km. Hence, he could not claim that he was not trained properly, Chavan added.
The police, in their reply, said that a check number is issued to the driver after the completion of the training. Probe revealed that More was issued a dummy check number belonging to a driver, who had already left the service. It was also found that his details were never updated in the BEST system. Consequently, charges of deception were added due to these discrepancies.
Regarding the issue of illegal arrest, the court stated that such grounds should have been raised at the time of arrest. It ruled that illegal arrest does not vitiate the proceedings. The court rejected the bail plea, noting that his previous such plea was nixed with detailed reasoning.
