2010 Marine Lines accident convict Nooriya Haveliwala dies of chronic liver disease at 41

Nooriya’s mother Alifya informed the Colaba police about her daughter’s death after which a diary entry was made by the officials. The LT Marg police will now inform the Bombay high court (HC) about her natural death on the next date of hearing. At HC, her appeal against conviction in the drunken driving case was pending

MUMBAI: India-born US national Nooriya Haveliwala, who was convicted of drunken driving and mowing down a police officer and a biker in 2010, died in Saifee Hospital at Charni Road on Tuesday.

The police claimed that Nooriya had partied with friends at a flat in the Malabar Hill area, then at a pub in Mumbai Central after which she went to a wine shop to pick up more beer cans and later crashed her car into the police nakabandi, when the Kalbadevi traffic division had arranged a special drive to nab drunken drivers. (HT Archives)

Haveliwala, 41, was living with her mother Alifya Yusuf Haveliwala, 88, in Colaba’s Alipur Trust Building. She had reportedly slipped into depression and was undergoing treatment. On January 30, 2010, at around 3.30am, Haveliwala, a beautician and a hairstylist, rammed her SUV into a police checkpoint at Marine Lines in south Mumbai, killing two. Her alcohol test turned out to be positive.

Nooriya’s mother Alifya informed the Colaba police about her daughter’s death after which a diary entry was made by the officials. The LT Marg police will now inform the Bombay high court (HC) about her natural death on the next date of hearing. At HC, her appeal against conviction in the drunken driving case was pending.

Nooriya had softly wept in the witness box and pleaded with the judge to show mercy, given that she was the only child and had an elderly mother to look after. Her father died in May, 2010, according to police.

The police claimed that Nooriya had partied with friends at a flat in the Malabar Hill area, then at a pub in Mumbai Central after which she went to a wine shop to pick up more beer cans and later crashed her car into the police nakabandi, when the Kalbadevi traffic division had arranged a special drive to nab drunken drivers.

According to the prosecution case, the Honda CRV driven by Haveliwala arrived from Opera House around 12.10am and was proceeding towards Churchgate when it dashed at high speed against a stationary taxi and then against the jeep of the traffic police division.

Her car had run over – police sub-inspector Dinanath Shinde from the traffic division and motorcyclist Afzal Ibrahim. Shinde was checking the vehicle papers of the biker at the time.

Police constable Shailendra Jadhav was injured in the incident, but the NRI hairstylist escaped unhurt, as the airbag in the steering of her car inflated in time.

The LT Marg police had registered a case against her. Though the primary charge against her was of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (304(II), she was also booked under section 27(a) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, as her subsequent examination had revealed that she was under influence of alcohol and drugs as well at the time of the incident.

Haveliwala was arrested on January 30, 2010, and was released on bail around three months later, on April 4, 2010. She was rearrested after a special NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) court convicted her on November 1, 2012, for offences punishable under Sections 184, 185 of Motor Vehicles Act, section 304(II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 338, 337, 427 Indian Penal Code and Section 3(1) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, and was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of over ₹5 lakh. She was, however, acquitted of the charges levelled under the NDPS Act, 1985.

Haveliwala, who had returned from the US along with her parents a few months before the incident, had then carried the matter in appeal to the Bombay high court, where she challenged her conviction for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and the 5-year jail term handed down to her by the special NDPS court.

On March 8, 2013, a single-judge bench of the high court granted her bail during the pendency of her appeal, primarily in view of the fact that she was on bail during the trial and that she had “a fairly good chance of succeeding in the appeal, at least for substantial reduction of the sentence.” Haveliwala’s appeal against conviction is still pending before the high court.

Her father Yusuf Died in May 2010, he had undergone brain surgery. He had served in the US Army, said a police officer. Haveliwala studied up to Class 12 in the US, where she lived with her parents, before graduating from a college in Kodaikanal after her parents moved to India.

“She slipped into depression and the family was also in stress after the case. She and mother used to stay together,” said a police officer from Colaba police station.