JAMMU, Aug. 24 -- The court of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Jammu, on Friday rejected the bail plea of 20-year-old Mannan Anand, who twice brutally hit a 68-year-old man with his Thar in Gandhi Nagar area recently. The CJM called the act "not just rash driving but a deliberate attempt to murder a senior citizen that was captured on a CCTV camera". On July 27, Anand who was driving his Thar recklessly in Gandhi Nagar, first rammed into a scooty being ridden by a senior citizen Kamal Kant Dutt and then reversed his SUV full throttle hitting the old man, who was rendered unconscious. The accused then stepped out of his Thar and was seen abusing the unconscious senior citizen before driving away from the spot. The entire incident was captured on a CCTV camera. The victim suffered a fracture in his skull and brain hemorrhage. He was first shifted to GMC, Jammu, and later referred to Fortis Hospital in Chandigarh, where he remains in a critical condition. While dismissing the bail application, CJM Preet Simran Kour Grover noted that the case went beyond a simple accident. "The act of reversing the vehicle over a helpless senior citizen shows prima facie deliberate intent to kill," she observed, adding that such road rage incidents posed a grave threat to public peace and security. The court further remarked that granting bail at this stage would "send wrong signals to society" and embolden others to take law into their own hands. The judge cited the brutality of the act, public trauma, and the victim's precarious health as reasons for denying bail. The bail plea was argued by advocate Ranbir Singh, counsel for the accused. He contended that Anand, a young engineering student with no past criminal record, had surrendered to police voluntarily and was being victimised due to public pressure and media coverage. Counsel cited Supreme Court judgments emphasising bail as a rule, not an exception. On the other hand, Vikram Parihar, public prosecutor for the UT, strongly opposed the bail plea. Supporting him, advocate Sachin Gupta, appearing on behalf of the victim, argued that the offence was heinous, non-bailable, and amounted to an "attempted murder in broad daylight." They stressed that the accused's conduct-fleeing the scene after crushing the victim-posed a risk of tampering with evidence and intimidating witnesses. The CCTV footage of the incident, widely circulated on social media and news channels, sparked public anger across Jammu. Citizens and civil society groups have demanded stringent punishment, calling the act "a crime against humanity."...