2 killed after speeding car collides with scooter

A 21-year-old biker and his friend died after a speeding car hit their bike on Vakola flyover. Driver arrested; protests ensued outside court.

MUMBAI: A 21-year-old biker and his friend riding pillion were killed after a speeding car collided with their bike on the Vakola flyover on Western Express Highway in the early hours on Friday. While the car driver, identified as Siddhesh Rupesh Belkar, was arrested from the spot and remanded in police custody, relatives of the deceased tried to block traffic outside the Bandra court where he was produced in the afternoon, said police. The blockade was cleared after police assured protestors of swift action against the accused.

The car driver, Siddhesh Rupesh Belkar, lost control of the vehicle and it hit the road divider, crossed over to the adjacent lane and crashed into the scooter. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

According to the police, the deceased included 21-year-old Manav Vinod Patel, a resident of Miskita Chawl on St Anthony Road in Vile Parle West, who was riding the bike; and his friend, 23-year-old Harsh Ashish Parmar, a resident of the nearby Anjali Apartment. The duo were childhood friends and worked in medical stores in Vile Parle.

Manav and Harsh often visited Bandra Reclamation after dinner on their scooter and usually returned home around midnight, said Harsh’s maternal uncle Jatin Rathod. They had gone to Bandra on Thursday night too and were returning home via Western Express Highway around 1am on Friday when they were hit by the car, he said.

“When their scooter heading towards Vile Parle entered the Vakola flyover, they were hit by a speeding Baleno car coming from the opposite direction,” said a police officer. The car driver, Siddhesh Rupesh Belkar, lost control of the vehicle and it hit the road divider, crossed over to the adjacent lane and crashed into the scooter, the officer noted.

Some passersby informed the Kherwadi police station about the accident, following which a police vehicle reached the spot and took Belkar into custody. Both Manav and Harsh, who sustained severe injuries, were rushed to VN Desai Hospital, where Harsh was declared brought dead while Manav died after being shifted to Cooper Hospital.

Subsequently, an FIR was registered against the car driver based on a complaint by Manav’s father, 47-year-old Vinod Patel, also a driver by profession. Belkar was booked under sections 105 (culpable homicide for not amounting the murder) and 281 (rash driving on a public way) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act. He was produced in the Bandra magistrate court during the afternoon court and remanded in police custody till Monday.

“We conducted a medical test on the accused and have sent his blood samples for analysis to ascertain if he was under the influence alcohol,” said the officer quoted earlier.

Three other passengers who were in the car when the accident occurred were unhurt. They were identified as Om Mahesh Nagvekar, 23, Prashant Harishchandra Yadav, 20, and Avinash Arun Kumar Maurya, 22 – all residents of LIC Colony in Borivali West.