4 days Ago By Mihir Tanksale
Dapodi police later detained the driver and invoked drunk driving and other charges against him. PUNE: An SUV driven by a student from a central govt-run residential engineering college in Dighi jumped a divider on Pune-Nashik highway late Saturday night, fatally hitting an autorickshaw driver and injuring two motorcyclists. The accident brought back memories of the May 19 accident in Kalyaninagar, when a Porsche Taycan driven by a 17-year-old hit a motorcycle from the rear, killing two young software engineers around 2.
30am. The teen was returning home in Wadgaon Sheri along with his two minor friends and his family driver after visiting some pubs in the Mundhwa area. In the latest case, the SUV driver is 17 years and 10 months old and admitted during questioning that he was drunk at the time of the crash in Bhosari, police said.
The minor hails from Haryana and his father is an Army JCO posted in a northeastern state. Police identified the autorickshaw driver as Amod Kamble (27), a resident of Landewadi in Bhosari. He died on the spot.
The teenage driver and his 20-year-old friend, who owned the SUV, escaped with minor injuries. They were going to Nashik Phata from Dighi, police said. Dapodi police later detained the driver and invoked drunk driving and other charges against him.
"We referred the minor to a medical test. A report of his blood sample test is awaited. During initial questioning, the minor admitted that he was drunk at the time of the accident and did not know how he lost control of the wheel," sub-inspector Pankaj Mahajan told TOI on Monday.
"Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 281 (rash driving on public road), 125-A (act endangering personal safety of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and 184 (rash driving) and 185 (drunk driving) of the Motor Vehicles Act have been invoked. We produced the minor before the juvenile justice board, which sent him to an observation home," the officer said. An officer from the engineering college confirmed that the teenager is from Haryana and his father is a junior commissioned officer (JCO) in the Army.
Indrayaninagar resident Murtuza Bohra (32), whose cousin Hujefa Bohra (28) was among the injured victims, said he had a narrow escape as his two-wheeler was just 50m behind his cousin's when it was struck by the SUV. Bohra told TOI, "What I witnessed was nothing but an action sequence from a movie. A black SUV jumped the divider and banged into the auto, my cousin's scooter and a motorcycle.
I stopped immediately after the SUV hit my cousin's scooter. All four vehicles went off the road and stopped after hitting trees." Bohra and his cousin, who were returning home after offering prayers in a mosque, said there were a few more men with them.
"After the accident, they ran to help the victims, while I ran to the Bhosari police station and alerted the policemen there," Bohra said. He said two youngsters came out of the mangled SUV. "They were drunk.
We also saw a liquor bottle in the vehicle," he added. Bohra said the auto driver was stuck in the mangled remains of his vehicle. "Along with the police, we had a tough time pulling him out.
He was motionless. We sent him and my cousin and the other injured to a hospital," he added. Sub-inspector Mahajan said, "We will investigate all angles including the place from where the duo purchased liquor or if they had consumed it in a bar or in the vehicle.
" (With inputs from Sandip Dighe).
