Driver ordered to pay Rs4.5m to man crippled after accident

A district and sessions court has ordered a driver to pay a compensation of over Rs4.5 million to a man who required a leg amputation after being hit by the accused's recklessly driven truck.

Additional Sessions Judge (West) Aurangzeb Shah found Mohammad Rashid guilty of injuring Muhammad Shahbaz in a road accident in Shershah in November 2018. He convicted the accused of committing the offence punishable under the Section 334 (punishment for Itlaf-udw) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with the Section 337-G (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent driving) of the PPC and ordered him to pay 'Arsh' in the sum of Rs3,378,951 to the victim, which is one-half of the Diyat amount of Rs6,757,902 declared by the federal government for the financial year 2023-24.

"Itlaf-i-udw" refers to the offence of causing harm or dismemberment to another person, resulting in the loss of a limb or organ. The judge said the accused shall suffer simple imprisonment until the payment of the amount in lump sum.

He noted that the accused remained admitted to a private hospital for his treatment and borne expenses on his own. "With that being observed, it is useful to mention here that injured Muhammad Shahbaz has not only suffered physical hurt as a result of accident caused by present accused, eventually his leg was amputated through knee, but also languished mental anguish and psychological damage, making him entitled for compensation under section 544-A of CrPC," he said, ordering the accused to pay Rs1.2 million as compensation to the victim. The accused would have to undergo six month imprisonment upon failure to pay the compensation.

The convict, who turned up on bail, was subsequently taken into custody and remanded to jail. According to the prosecution, complainant Asif Mehmood had lodged an FIR at the SITE-A police station stating that on November 23, 2018, he received a call from staff of the Chippa Ambulance informing him that his brother Shahbaz had been injured in an accident in Shershah and was taken to the Trauma Centre of the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital.

The complainant said he rushed to the hospital where he found his brother in the emergency ward with a fractured leg. He said doctors concluded that Shahbaz's leg had to be amputated. Asif said he then took his brother to a private hospital for a second opinion where doctors could not save his brother's leg and it had to be amputated.

Advocate Mujahid Ali Awan, who represented the complainant, contended that Shahbaz lost his leg because of reckless driving of the accused. He said there was sufficient evidence that linked the accused with the offence, requesting the judge to punish him as per the law.

The victim testified that he was going from Naval Colony towards Saddar on his motorcycle when a Mazada truck being driven in a wrong direction hit him near Shershah Chowk, causing injury to his left leg. The accused, however, denied the charges.