19-year-old delivery boy killed by luxury SUV; driver gets bail

The deceased’s uncle suspected that the SUV driver was drunk at the time of the accident. Police, however, said Baheti did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol when he was apprehended soon after the crash

MUMBAI: A 19-year-old delivery boy died after a luxury SUV allegedly rammed his rented electric scooter from behind at Bandra Reclamation on Friday night. The SUV driver, 28-year-old Yuvaraj Rajkumar Baheti, was arrested by Bandra police and produced before a magistrate on Saturday, who granted him bail.

19-year-old delivery boy killed by luxury SUV; driver gets bail. (Hindustan Times)

Police said their preliminary investigation suggested that the teenager had changed lanes while the SUV was travelling at high speed and its driver was unable to control the vehicle.

The deceased was identified as Shubham Prajapati with the help of an Aadhaar card found in his pocket. “Prajapati was headed towards SV Road when the speeding SUV, driven negligently, hit his e-vehicle from behind, causing him serious injuries,” a police officer said.

Shubham’s uncle, Vijay Prajapati, said the 19-year-old had come to Mumbai to work and help his family financially. His father, Bhanupratap, works as a watchman and the family lives in Santacruz. Shubham’s siblings and other family members are in their native place in Uttar Pradesh.

Vijay suspected that the SUV driver was drunk at the time of the accident. Police, however, said Baheti did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol when he was apprehended soon after the crash. His blood samples have been collected to ascertain his alcohol content.

Baheti, a resident of Piramal Mahalaxmi in Lower Parel and the son of a businessman, is from Buldhana, according to police.

The incident came to light when constable Vinayak Jaykar of Bandra police station, who was on patrol, received information from the police control room about an accident at Bandra Reclamation. He reached the spot around 10.40pm and found the teenager lying unconscious in a pool of blood on the road towards the Western Express Highway.

“The injured man had suffered head injuries and was unconscious and a black-coloured Land Rover Defender was standing around 100 feet away from the spot,” said a Bandra police officer.

Police said the victim was riding a rented low-speed electric two-wheeler when the SUV hit him from behind. He was rushed to Bhabha Hospital in a private ambulance, but doctors declared him dead around 12.30am.

Subsequently, police registered a case under sections 106 (causing death by negligence) and 281 (rash or negligent driving on a public way) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and section 184 (driving dangerously) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Police said that according to the preliminary investigation, Shubham allegedly changed lanes and the speeding SUV driver could not control the vehicle before it hit the e-scooter. Baheti was subsequently produced before a metropolitan magistrate court in Bandra and granted bail on Saturday.