Noting that a three-year prison term is too meagre a punishment for running his car over seven precious lives in a drunken spree,the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Mumbai businessman Alistair Antony Pareira to immediately surrender and serve the remainder of his jail sentence. A Bench of Justices R M Lodha and J S Khehar made Pareira's case an example of how punishment is grossly disproportionate to the crime committed,that is,a drunken driver who mowed down seven innocent pavement dwellers a despicable aggravated offence ends up with a mere three years simple imprisonment. The apex court said though it might have intervened to enhance the punishment,it could not do so as the Maharashtra government had not appealed. In November 2006,Pareira smashed his car onto a pavement on Mumbais Carter Road,killing seven labourers and grievously injuring eight others sleeping there. The trial court sentenced him to six months simple imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh for rash and negligent driving. Following a public furore on the quantum of punishment,the Bombay High Court took suo motu cognizance of the case in 2007 and hiked the punishment to three years,this time convicting him under culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Pareira moved the SC against the verdict,with a plea that he had already undergone two months in jail and should be released after serving another month. But the SC did not agree. It said: .by letting the appellant away on the sentence already undergone i.e. two months in a case like this,in our view,would be travesty of justice.
