Chandigarh, May 19 -- Noting his utter disregard for traffic rules and safety of others on the road, a local court rejected the bail plea of 24-year-old Ishan Shankar, accused in the fatal BMW hit-and-run case that claimed the life of a young Chandigarh police constable on May 11.

In a strongly worded order, chief judicial magistrate Sachin Yadav observed that the act was not mere rash driving but bore prima facie elements of culpable homicide under the new Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). He wilfully flouted the general traffic rules of safe driving, the court said.

Shankar, a postgraduate from the University of Lancaster and an aspiring air force officer, was arrested on May 12 in an FIR registered at the Sector 3 police station, Chandig...