Sanjeev Nanda
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Six persons, including three police officers were killed by a speeding
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in the
Lodhi Colony Lodhi Colony is a Central Government Officers and Staff Residential Colony in South Central part of New Delhi, built in the 1940s, and lies adjacent to the Lodhi Gardens and Lodhi Road. History Built in 1940s, to house government employees, wit ...
area of
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, on 10 January 1999. After following trails of the engine oil, police found the BMW at 50 Golf Links, the residence of Rajeev Gupta. It was then revealed that Sanjeev Nanda, grandson of Indian Navy Chief and son of Indian arms dealer Suresh Nanda was driving the car after returning from a party with Siddhartha Gupta (son of Rajeev Gupta), and Manik Kapoor. While Nanda and several related parties were initially acquitted and released in a trial in 1999, he was later found guilty in 2008 and sentenced to two years in prison, which was reduced to time served, a large fine, and two years of community service by the Indian Supreme Court in 2012. The case attracted media attention, and was viewed by ''
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'' as "a test of the judicial system's ability to take on the powerful".indiatoday.digitaltoday.in
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Hit-and-run case

In the early morning of 10 January 1999, Sanjeev Nanda was returning from a late night party in Gurgaon with some friends. Nanda had reportedly been instructed by his parents not to drive that night, but was driving anyway. There was a police checkpoint on Lodhi Road and it appears that the constable may have challenged the car, though it is also possible that the car was going so fast that it was out of control. Sanjeev's BMW crashed through all the people at the police checkpoint, immediately killing two constables and two others. Another policeman and another bystander died later in hospital. The seventh victim survived. After running through the policemen, he allegedly stopped the car to check the damage, saw people under the car, and according to the prosecution, at this point a co-passenger said: "Let's go," and they quickly drove away. The car was then driven to a house in
Golf Links, New Delhi Golf Links is a neighbourhood in New Delhi, India. It is in walking distance to Khan Market. It is considered one of the most expensive areas to buy real estate in India. The name is inspired by the Delhi Golf Course nearby. It is close to a s ...
, where a watchman and driver were instructed to clean the bumpers and bonnet of the car. Subsequently, the police charged these three with destroying evidence. A few days later, a witness came forward to describe the scene. At the time of the crash, he was on his way to the railway station.


NDTV sting operation

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...
carried out a
sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role a ...
in which defence attorneys were filmed offering money to a witness. Later the Delhi High Court debarred the advocates for four months.Sanjeev Nanda's friend acquitted
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Investigation

The vehicle's broken registration plate was found on the scene the next morning. Preliminary investigations revealed that the car would have been going at 140 km/h when it hit the victims. Within a few hours of the incident, Inspector Jagdish Pandey of the Police Control Room of Delhi Police traced the car by trailing the oil leak to the grade from the spot of the accident. They found the one-month-old car, purchased in his sister Sonali Nanda's name, with foreign number plates, which had not been registered in India. Attempts to clean it were still in progress. Nanda and his friends were arrested, but his clothes, and those of the others who helped clean the car, were never found. Nanda and his friends were charged with
culpable homicide Culpable homicide is a categorisation of certain offences in various jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Nations which involves the illegal killing of a person either with or without an intention to kill depending upon how a particular j ...
in court.


Re-trial

The case went up for re-trial and was tried on a fast-track basis. On 2 September 2008, Nanda was convicted by a Delhi court for killing six persons. On 3 August 2012 the Supreme Court reduced his prison sentence to the two years he had already spent in prison, but the court added a large fine, and sentenced Nanda to do community service for two years.


In popular culture

The case inspired the
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
movie ''
Jolly LLB ''Jolly LLB'' is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language black comedy film written and directed by Subhash Kapoor and produced by Fox Star Studios. The film stars Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani and Amrita Rao. The theatrical trailer was revealed on 8 January 2 ...
'' (2013) starring
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and
Boman Irani Boman Irani (born 2 December 1959) is an Indian actor, photographer and voice artist who works predominantly in Hindi cinema he has also worked in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. He has acted in more than a 100 films in his career. Ear ...
, the Tollywood movie ''
Sapthagiri LLB ''Sapthagiri LLB'' is an Indian Telugu-language film directed by Charan Lakkakula and released in 2017. The film is a remake of ''Jolly LLB,'' a Hindi film. The story is about a small-time lawyer who challenges a top lawyer in a hit-and-run cou ...
'' (2017) starring
Saptagiri Sapthagiri which is also called Tirumala Hill is situated in hill town of Tirumala, near Tirupati in the Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, India. This hill is 853 m above sea level and is about in area. It comprises seven peaks, representi ...
and Sai Kumar, and the
Kollywood Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood' ...
movie '' Manithan''.


References

{{reflist Hit-and-run case Crime in Delhi Car crime