Mercedes hit and run case: Juvenile to be tried as adult

A Delhi court on Monday ruled that the juvenile accused in a 2016 Mercedes hit-and-run case will be tried as an adult.

The accused youth was seeking trial as a juvenile in a case in which he had allegedly run over 32-year-old Siddharth Sharma with his father's Mercedes when he was a teenager. He is 21 now.

This is the first case since the amendment of the Juvenile Justice Act in which a juvenile who committed a "heinous" crime will be tried as an adult. A heinous crime is one where the minimum mandatory sentence is 7 years.

The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in June 2016 had dubbed the alleged offence in the case as "heinous".

The Delhi Police had charge-sheeted the juvenile in the JJB for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder entails a maximum of 10 years jail.

The accused has been termed a 'perpetual defaulter', as he had been fined thrice - twice for speeding and once for parking wrongly.

The police also charge sheeted the juvenile's father and the family driver in this case. The accused allegedly ran over Sharma with his Mercedes in north Delhi's Civil Lines area on April 4, 2016.

-ANI