NEW DELHI, INDIA - An Indian court reduced Monday the jail term of the well-connected son of an arms dealer who killed six people in a 1999 hit-and-run case seen as a test of judicial impartiality in India.

Sanjeev Nanda, grandson of former navy chief S.M. Nanda, saw his original five-year sentence reduced to two years on appeal by the Delhi High Court, the Press Trust of India reported.

Nanda drunkenly mowed down six men in his BMW as he returned home with friends from a late-night party in New Delhi. Three of the victims were homeless people sleeping on the pavement, while the others were policemen manning a checkpoint.

He was originally convicted last year of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, but High Court Justice Kailash Gambhi ruled that his conviction should be for the lesser offence of causing death by negligence.

The case had attracted huge media attention because of Nanda's influential background, allegations of witness intimidation and a TV clip showing the defence and prosecution lawyers striking a deal to bail the accused out.

His conviction had been taken as a sign that India's rich and powerful could no longer act with the impunity of the past.