NEW DELHI: The lawyer representing a 17-year-old accused in a fatal road crash in Delhi’s Dwarka has sparked controversy after appealing for sympathy for the teenager, citing “academic stress” and alleged threat calls to his family.The crash, which took place near Lal Bahadur Shastri College in Dwarka South on 3 February, left 23-year-old Sahil Dhaneshra dead.
Police say a car allegedly driven by a juvenile without a licence collided with Dhaneshra’s motorcycle, which was travelling in the opposite direction, before hitting another parked vehicle.An FIR has been registered at Dwarka South police station under Sections 281/106(1)/125(a) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). According to Delhi Police, a PCR call about the incident was received at around 11:57am. Officers who reached the scene found three vehicles damaged and the motorcyclist dead.The accused minor’s lawyer, Lal Singh Thakur, said the incident had deeply affected the teenager and his family.“The incident that happened on February 3rd is very unfortunate and painful. I am also a parent. The entire family has been severely stressed and traumatised by this until today. Especially that child, who has to take his board exams today, he isn’t able to do so properly. And he is a child with a studious background, a gold medalist. But unfortunately, an accident has had a huge impact on his life,” Thakur said.He added that the matter remains under investigation and that the defence has not admitted the boy was driving at the time of the crash.“The matter is currently at the investigation stage. Everything right now is based on speculation. We are not admitting anywhere yet that the boy was the one driving. Regarding the allegations, this is an incident of an accident, and if what you are talking about is true, then look at it this way: appreciate the boy’s conduct. This boy did not flee the scene.”“This boy is not someone who took the car and ran away. He did not do that. This family was not one that tried to cover up the case or manage it from somewhere; nothing like that. They called you to the police station, presented the child at the police station, they were kept there all night, the parents were kept there all night,” Thakur told ANI.The lawyer said the minor was later produced before the Juvenile Justice Board.“The board formed an opinion that we should send this boy away for a few days so he can undergo some improvement; we said we would cooperate, even though the boy has board exams, classes all day, and tuitions going on. But despite that, as the board ordered, we immediately complied. On the 3rd, the board sent him to what we call ‘juvenile jail’. And on the 10th, we got interim bail so that in the meantime his studies are not ruined. No doubt, the boy who left this world, it is regrettable, we cannot express in words the damage and loss the family is sustaining and feeling. But this child is also a young boy of 17 years who is under tremendous pressure, his family is under so much pressure, that besides all the media since yesterday, they are getting personal calls, threat calls. I feel there is so much pressure on the child that some mishap might happen to him. This is very unfortunate,” he said.Thakur also urged restraint in coverage of the case.“The level of this torture has increased so much that we fear the child might do something to himself. His family might do something. So many abuses, so many threats, in such foul language that I cannot show you. If I count now, there must have been around 1,400 calls to his family. These poor people are sitting with their phones switched off. I told them to attend the calls, to talk. Just now I was going to lodge their complaints. My request to you is: this is a question of a child’s future, please do not make it a media trial,” he stated.Police have not publicly commented on the defence’s claims regarding threat calls. The investigation into the crash is ongoing.
