The dangers of underage driving raised its head yet again when a 16-year-old youth driving an SUV without a driver’s licence, met with an accident recently. However, the police seem to have turned a blind eye to the matter and no case has been registered till now.
The event unfolded around 4.30 am on June 24, when Mahin Kapur, son of makeup artist Gouri and businessman Ranjan Kapur, whose family owns Rex Theatre on Brigade Road, was involved in an accident on Doddabalapur road while returning from his farm. Mahin, a Class 10 student, was admitted to Columbia Asia Hospital, Hebbal, early last Sunday in a critical and unconscious state. According to the Hospital’s General Manager Jeremy D'Souza, “Mahin had sustained severe head injury and a scan showed a frontal contusion. He was admitted in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It has been a week and his condition is improving and is a little stable now. Mahin is still in the ICU and is under constant observation”.
Though it looked to be a case of rash and dangerous driving, police are yet to act against the unlicenced driver and dismissed it as a minor incident. When Deccan Chronicle questioned the police why a case has not been registered yet, the reporter was asked to come down to the station and file a complaint.
The parents of the 16-year have accused the media of blowing the incidence out of proportion. “It was not an accident, just a small incidence. Everyone is just blowing it out of proportion,” said Mahin’s mother Gouri Kapoor. According to the Motor Vehicles Act, the owner of the vehicle driven by an underage driver is punishable under Section 180 with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may go up to Rs 1,000, or both. As for the underage driver, action will be taken under Section 181 of the Act, which entails punishment with imprisonment for a term extending up to three months, or with fine up to Rs 500, or both.