Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 21 (IANS) The family and friends of Sanjeev Nanda, convicted for running over six people with his BMW in 1999, were not the only ones relieved by the Delhi High Court’s reduction of his sentence. Utsav Bhasin, accused of knocking down and killing a man riding a scooter with his BMW in 2008, congratulated Nanda on a social networking website.
On Monday, the court reduced Nanda’s jail term from five years to two. Later that evening, Bhasin posted “Congrats” on Nanda’s Facebook page.

The day before the hearing, a message from Bhasin read: “Hey Sanjeev…high time now…just waiting for the judgement…so unfair has been reserved since so long…hope to see you out soon brother.”

Nanda, the grandson of former Naval chief S.M. Nanda and son of arms dealer Suresh Nanda, was returning from a party in suburban Gurgaon with his friends Manik Kapoor and Siddharth Gupta in his luxury car in the early hours of Jan 10, 1999, when he went over six people in south Delhi’s Lodhi Colony area.

On Sep 11, 2008, Bhasin, the teenaged son of a Haryana industrialist, hit two men on a motorcycle with his BMW car around 2.40 a.m. near Moolchand flyover in south Delhi. One of the two victims died later.

In February, the apex court granted Bhasin bail.

Legal experts say the court order in Nanda’s case will certainly help Bhasin. The court held Nanda guilty of rash and negligent driving and not culpable homicide.

“Utsav will certainly be benefited from it. We are examining the key areas from the detailed order to see exactly how we can extract benefit,” said Ramesh Gupta, who is handling Bhasin’s case and was also the counsel for Nanda.