US Indian gets 5-year RI
India-born US national Nooriya Haveliwala was on Thursday sentenced to five years’ rigorous imprisonment by a special court for mowing down two persons, including a policeman, while driving her SUV under the influence of liquor in 2010.
The court, however, acquitted her of the charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
30-year-old Nooriya was taken into custody after the court held her guilty under IPC for rash and negligent driving and culpable homicide not amounting to murder and under Motor Vehicles Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
Judge I.M. Bohari also imposed a fine of `5 lakh on Nooriya. Of this amount, the court ordered `2 lakh each to be given as compensation to families of deceased police sub-inspector Dinanath Shinde, and biker Afzal Ibrahim.
Shailesh Jadhav who was seriously injured in the crash would receive `50,000 while three other injured persons would receive compensation of `15,000 each.
According to the prosecution, on January 30, 2010, Nooriya crashed her SUV into six persons, killing two of them, and injuring four others. Nooriya was arrested after medical reports said she was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Pleading mercy and lighter sentence, Nooriya told the court that she was ready to help the victims by compensating them. She said she runs an NGO and wanted to create awareness about the ill-effects of drunken driving.
Nooriya said she was young and had a 80-year-old mother to look after. Besides, she had suffered a lot of personal loss after the incident. She had shown remorse and took the injured to hospital. This reflected on her conduct.
Handing down the sentence, the judge remarked, “the deceased police sub-inspector was doing his duty along with other policemen while another deceased Afzal died very young”. “Considering the behaviour of the accused during the trial, her young age, old mother, I am of the view that a balance has to be maintained between the accused and the woes of victims,” the judge of the NDPS Court said.
As the sentence was delivered, Nooriya broke down and wept. Delivering the verdict, the Judge said, “a person driving the vehicle cannot be allowed to cause inconvenience to those moving on road.”
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