Man booked for death by negligence as speeding bike crashes into divider

Police book a man for rash driving and causing death by negligence after he fabricated a story about a car hitting his scooter, resulting in his cousin's death.

Police on Monday booked a 23-year-old man on charges of rash driving and causing death by negligence, two days after he cooked up a story that a car dashed into his scooter from behind on Bandra-Kurla Link Road which resulted in his cousin’s death.

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The accident, according to Saleem Shah, occurred around 2 am on Saturday when he along with two of his relatives - Aftab Shah, 25, and Sameer Shah, 21, - was on his way home in Ghatkopar on a scooter from Mahim after visiting the dargah, a police officer from BKC police station said. They took an injured Aftab to KEM Hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival. The police registered an accidental death report.

“However, when we started investigating to find out if someone was responsible for Aftab’s death, Sameer was unwilling to speak about the incident,” the officer said.

Though the family maintained that the scooter slipped and crashed into a divider after being hit by a car, the investigating team, while conducting a panchnama of the spot and the vehicle, was not convinced by this purported sequence of events. Suspicious, they scanned the footage of CCTV cameras on the accident spot.

“In the footage, we saw the accused speeding away at Library junction opposite Hitchki restaurant, dangerously overtaking an autorickshaw and a car. The trio was then seen on the road that goes towards MTNL junction where they crashed into the divider and Aftab, who was on the pillion, suffered severe injuries,” the officer said.

The police changed the accidental death report into an FIR. Saleem has been booked under section 279 (rash and negligent driving), 304 A (causing death by negligence), 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (causing hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life, or the personal safety of others), and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code along with sections of the Motor Vehicles Act.