Saha Mondal (top) and Bhandari

A truck driver who had mowed down a traffic sergeant in Taratala in 2005 was found guilty of murder on Wednesday.

The police said this was the first instance in the city of the driver of a killer vehicle being convicted of murder.

The additional district and sessions judge of Alipore court, N.K. Sarkar, who pronounced Mehedi Hasan Bhandari guilty of murdering sergeant Samarendra Nath Saha Mondal, will deliver the sentence on Thursday.

On June 14, 2005, the 45-year-old sergeant was manning the crossing of Ramtanu Lahiri Lane and Diamond Harbour Road, off New Alipore’s C block, when he spotted a truck trying to sneak into a “no-entry” stretch.

Saha Mondal intercepted the truck and asked Bhandari to step out. “The driver requested Saha Mondal not to prosecute him but the officer turned down the plea. Bhandari then climbed back into the cabin on the pretext of moving the truck to the edge of the road which it was blocking,” said Jawed Shamim, the deputy commissioner (detective department).

But Bhandari pressed the accelerator in an attempt to speed off. When the sergeant tried to block his way, Bhandari ran him over and fled towards Behala.

Constable Sukanta Mandal, who witnessed the incident, immediately alerted Behala and Thakurpukur police stations and Bhandari was intercepted on Diamond Harbour Road in Behala.

Following a complaint by Mandal, the cops charged the driver with murder (IPC Section 302) and violation of the Motor Vehicles Act.

An official expressed the hope that Wednesday’s verdict would boost the government’s attempt to charge drivers of killer vehicles with culpable homicide not amounting to murder (IPC Section 304), a non-bailable offence punishable with 10 years in jail.

The usual practice is to book such drivers under Section 304A (causing death due to negligence), a bailable charge carrying a sentence of two years’ imprisonment.

“The government had to revert to the earlier system after invoking Section 304 for a month or two following protests by drivers,” the official added.