The Free Press Journal

Accused still on the run, father gets bail From page 1

While Mihir is still absconding, his father Rajesh Shah, a member of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, was granted bail by a court which observed that the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was not applicable to him.

The accident took place around 5.30am on Sunday, when Mihir lost control of the car and rammed it into the Nakhwas’ two-wheeler. The car was allegedly being driven by Mihir, the police said.

According to police sources familiar with the investigat­ion, Mihir went to the bar with friends between around 11.30pm with his family driver Rajrishi Bidawat, to party. The sources said he left the bar around 1.30am after running up a bill of Rs 18,000. On Monday, the bar remained closed, for ‘operationa­l reasons’.

Further, the sources claimed that after the accident, on the advice of his father, Mihir absconded. Police said, “After the accident, prime accused Mihir called up his father and then Rajesh told the driver Bidawat and Mihir to exchange seats.” This was in order to implicate the driver in the accident case, the sources claimed.

As Mihir was not traced, police arrested Rajesh and the driver Bidawat for not cooperatin­g in the case. The two were produced before the Metropolit­an Magistrate Court on Monday. Police sought their custody for interrogat­ion.

The prosecutio­n, while arguing the case, produced CCTV footage showing how the car dragged the woman for about 1.5km. Furthermor­e, it has emerged that the woman was disengaged from the car, only to be mowed over again, while the vehicle reversed. They also shared the CCTV footage of Mihir and the driver exchanging their seats.

The prosecutio­n claimed that Rajesh was aware of the whereabout­s of the accused and needed to be interrogat­ed about the incident.

The plea was opposed by the defence lawyer, Sudhir Bhardwaj, who argued, “The son is missing, is that a reason to arrest his father? Is it not normal for an accused to call his father when in panic?” It was further contended that the charges for culpable homicide were not applicable to Rajesh as he was not driving the car at the time of the incident or present at the spot. As for the driver, the defence said, there was nothing to be recovered from him and his custodial interrogat­ion was not needed.

After hearing both sides, Metropolit­an Magistrate S P Bhosale of the Sewri court accepted the defence arguments and said the charge of culpable homicide was not made out against Rajesh Shah and remanded him in jail custody.

However, Rajrishi was sent to police custody for a day. Soon after Shah was remanded in judicial custody, his lawyer moved a bail plea, which too was allowed.