Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Feb 1: The state high court (HC) has waived two months of imprisonment awarded to a KSRTC driver for causing a minor accident seven years back on Charmadi Ghat road.

The single judge bench of the HC presided over by Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar, which heard a criminal revision petition filed by KSRTC driver, H Devendrappa relating to the said accident, ordered to quash the jail sentence. It also directed that the driver should not be made to face any problems in his service on account of the sentence and this sentence should not be recorded in his service record.

"This is a minor accident. When negotiating KSRTC bus through the narrow Charmadi Ghat road, the bus had hit a private bus on a road bend even though the driver was properly driving the bus. Negligence on the part of the driver is not apparent here," the bench stated while waiving off the two-month jail sentence awarded by the lower court. However, he has been asked to pay a fine of Rs 1,500 already imposed on him.

Devendrappa was driving a bus on narrow Charmadi Ghat road in August, 2014, when the bus had brushed against a private bus and caused a minor accident. The magistrate court at Beltangady, which heard the case in 2 019, had announced jail sentence of two months and fine of Rs 1,500 to the driver.