Two persons were killed and four others were injured when an Audi Q3 car -- driven by an allegedly drunk lawyer and on the wrong side of the road -- rammed into a taxi at Mahul in north eastern Mumbai on the Eastern Freeway in the early hours of Tuesday.
The accused – Jahnvi Gadkar who works as Vice-President (Legal) at Reliance Industries Limited --has been arrested and police confirmed that her blood sample tested positive for alcohol.
The accident devastated a family from Null Bazaar in South Central Mumbai which was returning home after a celebratory dinner for the success of their child who passed the Class X board examination on Monday.
Imran Sabuwala, a relative of the family, said his cousin Noman had successfully passed Class X and to celebrate the success, Noman’s father Salim decided to take out for dinner at their favourite eatery in Bhiwandi. “They boarded the taxi to their house in Null Bazaar,” he said.
The cab driver, identified as Sayyad Hussain (45), and Salim were in the front seat of the taxi, while Salim’s wife Hafeeza (45), daughters Sabiya (22) and Salma (19) and son Noman (17) were in the back seat.
According to the police, around 1.45 a.m, the cab had reached the Mahul exit on the Eastern Freeway on the south-bound lane towards CST when the red coloured Audi A3 rammed into the cab.
Police claimed that the accused woman had been driving on the wrong side right from the P. D’Mello Road near CST, the freeway’s origin, but eyewitnesses said she had come on to the freeway from an exit from the IMAX theatre at Wadala.
Case bookedAfter the collision, other drivers and passersby tried extricate Salim and Sayyad from the completely mangled front portion of the taxi but could not. Jahnvi then immediately got down from the vehicle and asked the crowd to take the victims to the hospital and said she would pay for the treatment. Police reached the scene in around 15 minutes with the fire brigade in tow. It required the use of steel cutters take Salim and Sayyad out of the cab. They died before admission to hospital.
The three women passengers were taken to the Saifee Hospital where the condition of Hafeeza was said to be serious. Noman sustained minor injuries.
“Jahnvi is a resident of Chembur and had left from Hotel Marine Plaza after consuming alcohol. We have arrested her for rash and negligent driving, culpable homicide not amounting to murder under the IPC and drunken driving under the Motor Vehicles Act,” said DCP (zone 6) S. Nishandar.
