Collegian held for killing 9 persons with his luxury car withdraws bail plea from Gujarat HC

Ahmedabad, Dec 20 (PTI) The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday disposed of the regular bail petition of Tathya Patel, a collegian arrested for killing nine persons and injuring 13 others by ramming his speeding luxury car into a crowd in Ahmedabad in July, after he withdrew the plea.

While pronouncing the order, the court of Justice MR Mengdey said the matter was “disposed of as withdrawn”, after the lawyer for the accused applicant decided to withdraw the bail plea.

The court had earlier said it was not inclined to grant bail to the 20-year-old accused. Patel was charged under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code and the Motor Vehicles Act.

Nine persons, including a constable, were killed when his speeding Jaguar car ploughed into a crowd gathered at an accident site on the ISKCON bridge here in the early hours of July 20.

Police on July 27 filed a 1,700-page chargesheet against him that included a report by the luxury car maker Jaguar, which suggested that the vehicle was overspeeding when it rammed into the crowd.

Submitting on behalf of Patel, his lawyer had argued that a crowd had gathered on the bridge past midnight due to an accident that happened earlier at the same spot. He was not trying to run away and was neither drunk, the lawyer contended.

Patel’s lawyer further urged the court to consider the case as that of negligence instead of culpable homicide and also consider the fact that the applicant was not a hardened criminal.

The prosecution highlighted the severity of the offence and said that the accused was also involved in two other road accidents before the Iskcon flyover incident.

Yet another FIR was lodged against Patel after a probe revealed that he had crashed the same car into the premises of a temple complex in Gandhinagar earlier.