Mumbai: 5 acquitted in death of child during Ganpati visarjan

The Metropolitan Magistrate at Esplanade Court has acquitted five people of a Ganpati mandal who were booked and arrested by the Cuffe Parade police for alleged negligence after a fouryearold girl died when a parked Ganpati Visarjan trolley fell on her in 2019 at Colaba During the investigation it was found that the Cuffe Parade police submitted fake witnesses and also conducted the panchnama at the police station rather than at the spot The father of the girl told midday that all the arrested accused were innocent and this incident was only an accident innocent people were arrested due to political pressure on the policeTrolley that fell on the childThe fouryearold girl identified as Lalita Shravan Kumar Vaishnav lived with her father and three sisters in the Colaba area The court quashed the case against all five accused Rajesh Meher Ravindra Meher Vinod Tandel Ketan Tandel and Avinash Tandel all residents of Bhandarkar Machhimar Vasahat ColabaAccording to the police the incident occurred on April 12 2019 when Lalita was playing with her friends in the Sagar Samrat Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal Ground at Macchimar Nagar on Prakash Pethe Marg in the Cuffe Parade area The visarjan trolley was attached to a tree using a nylon rope and while children were playing on it it fell on the girl She was rushed to hospital by residents after the kids informed their parents The girl was declared dead at the hospitalFalsely implicatedSpeaking with midday Advocate Sunil Pandey who appeared in the matter stated ldquoThe applicants were falsely implicated due to political rivalry and pressure There were no eyewitnesses and the girl died due to her own negligence a fact known in the area The father of the victim didnrsquot support the prosecution case All accused belong to the fisher community and there were office bearers It can be inferred from the statement of eyewitnesses that signatures and statements were prepared in the police station and the investigating officer didnrsquot visit the incident spot The panchnama was prepared in the police station and this was admittedrdquolsquoNot fishermenrsquos faultrsquoThe deceased girlrsquos father Shravan Kumar Vaishnav told midday ldquoI lost my daughter in this incident There was no fault of the fishermen who were arrested in this case All were innocent These accused also helped me after I lost everything in Mumbai This mandal is regularly organising Ganapati functions and they kept this trolley properly All kids were also instructed not to play at this place My daughter was playing near the trolley with her friends and it fell on her After this incident I met a political leader in our area for financial help but instead of helping he informed the police to register a case and arrest all peoplerdquo The incident happened while the girlrsquos father was at his workplace and someone informed him that his daughter Lalita was injured and admitted to the hospitalAdvocate Sunil Pandey right Shravan Kumar Vaishnav the deceasedrsquos fatherDuring the investigation the investigating officer recorded statements of witnesses prepared spotcumseizure panchnama and inquest panchnama collected documents including the cause of death certificate On completion of the investigation the charge sheet was filed against all five accused However considering all the facts the high court acquitted all the accused of the offence punishable under Section 304a rw 34 of the Indian Penal Code vide Section 2551 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 Each accused is required to furnish a PR Bond of Rs 10000 under Section 437A of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 Section 304a of the Indian Penal Code states ldquoCausing death by negligence whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with bothrdquo To construe the offence under the above provision there should be a rash and negligent act on the part of the accused with a nexus to the death of the victimHowever during the investigation the police found that the eyewitness Santosh also turned totally hostile It has come in his evidence that on April 12 2019 he was on a boat and was not at the spot the day the trolley fell on the girl During his crossexamination no fruitful purpose sufficed He stuck to his evidence that nothing happened in his presence It has also come in his evidence that on that day the police called the panch to the police station and obtained their signature on an already prepared panchnama and took their signatures Also the CCTV footage was blank and there was no video clip in the DVD when played in courtAdvocate Pandey said ldquoThey also created a fake witness for evidence stating that the man saw the incident In reality when the incident happened nobody was present at the spot and there were only 45 children The plot was orchestrated by politicians but their strategy failed and the accused were named in the witness list which came to the knowledge of the court The court understood that it was a total frameuprdquo he addedApril 12 2019Day of incident