BMW hit-and-run: HC reduces Nanda's jail term

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday reduced the sentence of Sanjeev Nanda, convicted in the infamous BMW hit-and-run case, from five years to two years.

The court also changed the section under which Nanda was convicted, from the earlier section 304 Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) to section 304 A of the IPC.

A trial court had earlier convicted and sentenced Sanjeev Nanda, grandson of former Naval Chief S M Nanda, to five years imprisonment for mowing down six persons with his car in 1999.

Justice Kailash Gambhir, who had reserved the judgement in May, passed the verdict on petitions filed by three convicts, including Nanda, challenging the trial court order.

Besides Nanda, the court had also convicted Rajiv Gupta and Bhola Nath and sentenced them to one year and six months in jail, respectively.

Challenging his conviction in the case, Nanda argued that the trial court had convicted him under "media pressure" and on presumption devoid of evidence.

He submitted that the trial court had erred in believing the controversial eyewitness to the accident, Sunil Kulkarni, who, he argued, was not present in the capital on the day of incident.