Road rage violence: 27-year-old awarded 10-year RI by Chennai court

CHENNAI: A lower court in Chennai sentenced a 27-year-old to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for launching a murderous attack after a road rage incident, which left the victim partially blind.

The first additional sessions judge, Chennai, noted that using a sharp long knife and aiming for the head of the victim revealed the intention to murder the latter, and said the first accused, Sanjay, was liable to be punished under Section 307 of IPC (murder attempt). The judge sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with Rs 1 lakh as fine.

The incident happened on on October 18, 2017, when the victim, Sathya Swarooban, was driving his auto-rickshaw near Gill Nagar in Choolaimedu. Finding the road blocked by some two-wheelers, he tried to clear them to pass through.

Meanwhile, four youngsters, Sanjay, Ramesh, Appu and Rubesh, were in the middle of an argument between them. Seeing the auto driver moving their vehicle, they got angry. Sanjay verbally abused him and used a knife to injure his face, while the others joined in the attack. It left Sathya with severe injury in the left eye and lost his sight in that eye, said the prosecution.

Based on his complaint, the Choolaimedu police arrested all the accused and booked a case under various sections of IPC.

The counsel representing Sanjay submitted that he was falsely implicated in the case, as there was no reason for him to attack the victim. The injury sustained by the victim was caused by a road accident, he contended.

After perusal of all the submissions, the judge found Sanjay guilty under Section 307 of IPC and sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court also found the fourth accused Rubesh guilty under Section 323 of IPC (voluntarily causing hurt) and sentenced him to three weeks of simple imprisonment/ The others were acquitted.