My car was involved in an minor accident with a bike - our car bumper touched the rear wheel of the bike and the bike fell down, because of which the headlights of the imported bike got damaged. The person driving the bike was not injured at all. We were driving the car in the 1st gear in a crowded junction and the impact was so little that even our car was not damaged, except for a scratch in the front bumper.
The person on the bike asked us to pay 2.5 lacks in compensation. We come from a middle class salaried family and cannot pay that large amount and hence the biker has filed an FIR against us, so that he can use it to claim 3rd Party insurance. The police, however, have twisted the case and charged us with rash and negligent driving under sections 279 and others. We had accompanied the complainant to the police chowky and the police created a arrest warrant against my wife ( the driver ) and let us go home that night but kept the RC book and my wife's license.
The next day, we went to the police station and then were taken to the court. We didnt have our own lawyer as we were not told what was happening and the FIR was also in Marathi, that we unfortunately, dont understand. The police constable got a lawyer, who made my wife sign some forms and then bail was applied for, and granted. The police now, have our documents and have asked my wife to come and make a statement.
Please help us in this. We are not convinced of what the lawyer is telling us, we are new to this and we are not sure that the lawyer ( thrust on us, by the police at the station ) is representing us properly. He is not even telling us which all sections have been applied against my wife
What are the options available to us?
Plead guilty to save ourselves from the harrassment? Out of court settlement? If we settle out of court, will the case against my wife be closed without any conviction?
Please also note that we have 3rd party insurance, and we were not driving under the influence at any time. Could an eminent lawyer please help us, in what we need to do. We also took some pictures of the bike after the accident and that shows only the broken headlights and a scratch on the fender of the bike
Also, the bike driver didnt have his RC book and doesnt have insurance on his Bike. We are really scared because they are very influential in Pune, while we are not
