Widower waging a lonely battle8230;

Chandigarh, March 7: On January 5, 1998, 29-year-old British national Prabha Kapur died in a car crash at Shahbad, near here. Exactly one...

Chandigarh, March 7: On January 5, 1998, 29-year-old British national Prabha Kapur died in a car crash at Shahbad, near here. Exactly one year and a few hours later, the bus driver charged with causing her death due to alleged rash and negligent driving was a free man again, after the case against him was dismissed by the trial court in Kurukshetra. The reason: the lone witness in the case did not substantiate the prosecution8217;s charge. The remaining 28 witnesses were not examined.

The dismissal of the case and the resultant acquittal of the PEPSU Road Transport Corporation PRTC driver may not be the end of the road for Prabha8217;s journalist husband Updesh Kapur though. It has only firmed Kapur8217;s resolve to wage a full scale war against the system and exert international pressure on the Indian authorities and the British High Commission officials by mobilising public opinion through his site on the internet. Even the State of Haryana, reportedly, is well on its way to filing an appeal in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking examination of the remaining witnesses.

8220;We shall request the court to remand the case back to the trial court for examination of the remaining witnesses,8221; said Haryana Deputy Advocate General DAG Naresh Kumar Sanghi.

Kapur, at his end, has already engaged a counsel to file a revision petition. Besides, for the past 13 months, he has been busy gathering information about similar hit-and-run cases in India. 8220;I am trying to make a collective case. It is very sad that there are more people in the same position. All I have received from the authorities is excuses and no action,8221; he says.

8220;I am talking to people, getting more information from all over the world about people who have faced similar problems. I am even planning a TV documentary on this social problem, not merely my case, but the problem as such. In England if you hit and run, it is regarded as murder. Hit, don8217;t run, assist the victim and if he dies, you are still charged with manslaughter. Here in India, nobody seems to care,8221; he says.

The site on the Internet, gradient.ie/kapur, on which Kapur has issued an appeal for relatives of accident victims to come together and pressurise the authorities, has already been visited by over 3,000 people in less than one year.