Accused was drunk at time of accident: Report

MUMBAI: The blood alcohol report of the accused in the Worli accident has revealed that he was under the influence of alcohol when his speeding car ran over jogger, 58-year-old Rajalakshmi Vijay Ramakrishnan, chief executive officer of a tech firm, at Worli Sea Face on March 19

MUMBAI: The blood alcohol report of the accused in the Worli accident has revealed that he was under the influence of alcohol when his speeding car ran over jogger, 58-year-old Rajalakshmi Vijay Ramakrishnan, chief executive officer of a tech firm, at Worli Sea Face on March 19.

HT Image

The police have informed the metropolitan magistrate court in Dadar about the chemical analysis report and obtained the court’s permission to add section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act against Sumer Merchant.

“As it was suspected the accused was drunk at the time of the accident. We had taken his blood samples at JJ Hospital and sent it for chemical analysis to the Kalina forensic science laboratory. We have received the report which showed that the accused was drunk at the time of the accident. We will now add section 185 (driving vehicle by a drunken person or by a person under the influence of drugs) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 in the case,” a police officer said.

Meanwhile, Merchant has applied for bail and the Dadar court posted his plea for hearing on Monday.

“We suspected that the accused was drunk at the time of the accident. Our suspicion was strengthened by the statements given to the police by some people who accompanied the accused. One of them had even told him not to drive, but he did not listen to them,” advocates Samrat Ingle and Hemant Ingle, who represented Vijay Ramakrishnan, the husband of the deceased, said.

Ingle said the alcohol found in Merchant’s blood was much higher that the prescribed limit of 30 mg per 100 ml of the blood.

Sumer’s speeding car hit the jogger on Sunday morning at Worli Sea Face. The impact was so severe that Rajalakshmi was flung several feet away and was killed on the spot. The accused was on his way to drop his friends at Shivaji Park after partying with them the whole night.

The police said that Merchant lived in Tardeo with his parents and younger brother and worked with an event management firm. His parents had gone to Himachal Pradesh when he organised a party at his residence on Saturday night and invited his friends. The accident took place when he was going to drop them after a night of partying.