Mini Cooper crash: Kerala court denies bail to accused Suhail Sajeev and 3 others

A Kerala court on Saturday denied bail to Suhail Sajeev and three others, booked in connection with the Mini Cooper car accident which led to the death of three motorcyclists.

Sajeev along with Ninav, Joel and Ameer had filed bail applications before a trial court in Angamaly.

However, Judicial First Class Magistrate Samyuktha MK dismissed their bail pleas.

The case stemmed from an accident which happened on October 11 when a Mini Cooper driven by Sajeev at high speed hit a scooter carrying three youngsters on the Athani-Airport Road in Nedumbassery, killing all three.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), the impact threw all three onto the road, causing severe injuries to their heads and bodies. While two of them died on the spot, the third succumbed to injuries later.

The Nedumbassery Airport Police Station registered a case under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The police subsequently arrested Sajeev and three others in connection with the incident. The three were riding in the car along with Sajeev, who was behind the wheel.

All four accused were remanded to 14 days of judicial custody on October 14.

According to reports, Sajeev was driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.

During the bail hearing on October 16, the counsel appearing for the accused argued that the incident only amounted to rash and negligent driving rather than culpable homicide.

It was also argued that the victims too had violated the traffic rules as all three of them were riding on a scooter while using the middle lane of the road.

The abetment charges against the other three accused were challenged on the ground that they had only accompanied Sajeev in the car.

However, the prosecution and the victim's counsel opposed the bail plea, arguing that the accident could not be treated as an ordinary case of negligent driving.

CCTV footage was relied upon to show that all the accused had visited several bars and were inebriated before the accident. It was also alleged that the co-accused in the car had encouraged Sajeev to drive, despite knowing that he was drunk.

The Court today dismissed the bail pleas.

Advocates Saiby Jose Kidangoor, Sreeraj S Rajaram and Afsana Khan appeared for Sajeev.