Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed petitions filed by Mihir Shah and his driver Rajrishi Bindawat, both accused in the Worli car crash case where a woman was killed. A 45-year-old woman died in July after being hit by a luxury car in Worli, allegedly belonging to Shah.
Both petitioned the HC to challenge their arrests, terming it illegal and saying they were not served with the grounds of arrest in writing.A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande on Monday pronounced the judgment. They said they dismissed the petitions. The reasoned judgment will be out on Tuesday.
The prosecutor, who said it was a ‘hit-and-run case,’ stated the driver was picked up from near the spot, and hence no grounds were required to be given in writing. The HC said, in such cases, it would decide whether an accused is required to be informed about the grounds of arrest when arrested from the “site” and whether it would become an empty formality in such cases.
Shah’s advocate cited a recent HC judgment on the importance of grounds of arrest being shown to the accused while being arrested and the lack of information of the grounds rendering the arrest unlawful. Police arrested Shah on July 9, two days after he allegedly rammed his BMW into a bike, killing Kaveri Nakwa and leaving her husband Pradeep injured. Kaveri allegedly got dragged about a kilometre and a half in Worli and died. Her husband sustained injuries.
The Worli police invoked various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, including section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 281 (rash or negligent driving so as to endanger human life), 125(b) (endangering life or personal safety of others), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence), 324(4) (destruction of property with the intent to cause wrongful loss to the public or any person), and booked them for other offences under the Motor Vehicles Act.
Shah, his father, a former Shiv Sena member from the chief minister Eknath Shinde’s faction, and the driver were arrested. Shah’s father was granted bail, while the son and the driver are in judicial custody.