Virtually admonishing the prosecution for its 'pathetic' handling, the Bombay High Court on Thursday took suo motu notice of Alister Pereira getting away with a lighter punishment in the hit-and-run case in which seven labourers were killed and eight others injured.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S C Dharmadhikari ordered the state to furnish forensic, post-mortem as well as injury reports.

The court also issued show cause notices to the state government, Mumbai police and the investigating officer at Khar police station as to 'why there were loopholes' in the investigation.

The state has been directed to consider granting compensation to the victims and the kin of the deceased and file a reply by May 3.

The court has ordered Pereira not to leave the state and submit his passport to the authorities.

Pereira was given six months simple imprisonment by a sessions court on April 13 for running over seven labourers and injuring eight others who were sleeping on a pavement in suburban Bandra on November 12 last year.

He was convicted for negligence not amounting to culpable homicide. While convicting Pereira, the court had strongly criticised the police for its investigations which it said seemed casual and also for its failure to present proper evidence before it.