A Gurgaon court has sentenced 19-year-old Tapan Malik to two years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) on Tuesday for the death of three teenagers on the Gurgaon expressway in June last year.

Malik is accused of speeding, driving negligently under the influence of liquor and ramming the car into a median on the expressway, resulting in three deaths.

All the three deceased students and Malik were on their way back from a party at Hotel Samrat in New Delhi on June 14 around 2.30 am.

Two of the deceased, Divyanshu (15) and Sidharth Mehran (16), were from GD Goenka World School, and Curran Anand (15) was from Pathways World School.

Malik had miraculously survived the accident in which the car broke into two due to the impact.

The court has also announced a six-month RI separately for Malik for driving rash and sentenced him for two months and one month of simple imprisonment (SI) under section 185 and 181 of Motor Vehicle Act, respectively, for driving with under the influence of liquor and without a valid driving licence. But soon after the sentence was given, Malik was granted bail by the court.

Born on November 28, 1989, Malik was 18-and-a-half-year-old when the accident took place.

The eyes of Samir Anand (43), the MNC executive and father of deceased Curran Anand, welled up as soon as the sentence was announced. The deceased was his only child.

He told HT, “The judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years as is envisaged under section 304A of IPC. I can only say that the law should have provision more sterner penalty for such offenders so that others can draw a lesson.”

“Unfortunately, Malik was also granted bail immediately after the sentence was announced.”

Malik refused to talk the media but his mother Gita Malik said her son has been “framed”.

“It was simply an accident in which my son could also have died. Luckily he survived and three others died,” she said.

Sanjeev Jain, the defence lawyer, said his client (the Maliks) would move the sessions court against the sentence and seek relief.

The father of Curran Anand said, “I will fight the case in the apex court.”

“I will see that he (Malik) does not go unpunished and is held guilty in the higher courts as well.”