Killer driver faces tough court conditions to go abroad

CHANDIGARH - A teenaged girl who had mowed down two people, including a child, while racing her luxury Honda Accord car in a high-security area of Chandigarh in August this year has been told by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to comply with tough conditions before she could go to the US.

The court has ordered that Sukhmani Brar (alias Amanat), 19, who had hit and killed two people on a motorcycle Aug 16, be allowed to go to the US only if she deposits a bank fixed deposit receipt (FDR) of Rs.2 million (about $44,000) and also submits the original papers of a registered property owned by her father or guardian.

Brar, who belongs to an affluent family and holds a Green Card in the US, has been asked to submit the FDR and the property documents in a lower court here which is hearing the hit-and-run case.

Justice Jaswant Singh of the high court also imposed another condition on Brar. He directed that she should return to Chandigarh latest by Jan 31 next.

The high court said that if Brar did not return by the deadline, the Rs.2 million security will be given to the family of the victims and her property will be seized by the local administration.

The girl, who was studying in the US and had come here earlier this year to be with relatives for a family wedding, had approached the high court to get her passport released from the lower court where a case of causing death due to negligence and rash and negligent driving against her is pending.

She said that she needed to go to the US to fulfil the condition to retain her green card.

She mowed down Sukhwinder Singh, 21, and his cousin Harpreet Singh, 4, after a high-speed car race here.

The victims, who lived in Kansal village of Chandigarh, were headed home from a government hospital when they were hit.

Sukhwinder was pursuing an engineering course at Kharar town, about 20 km from here, while Harpreet was a school student.

After committing the crime Sukhmani fled from the spot in another car.

The accident took place in the high-security upscale Sector 2 area of Chandigarh, close to the residences of Punjab and Haryana chief ministers.

After the Chandigarh police drew a lot of flak for not arresting the girl immediately after the incident, she surrendered.

The luxury car, whose air-bags had inflated after the strong impact of the accident, belonged to Sukhmani’s grandfather, retired lieutenant colonel G.S. Brar. Her father, who is a captain in the merchant navy, resides in Dubai.