Unidentified man injured in Ghatkopar hit-and-run incident dies in hospital

A 30-year-old man died after being hit by a drunk driver in Ghatkopar. The driver and two passengers were arrested, facing serious charges.

MUMBAI: The 30-year-old unidentified man injured by an allegedly drunk driver on Saturday in Ghatkopar died on Sunday night. The police said that he suffered serious head injuries after being dragged and pinned between the vehicle and the stairs of a shop, and he never regained consciousness after the incident.

Unidentified man injured in Ghatkopar hit-and-run incident dies in hospital

The drunk driver of the SUV, Bhavika Hiren Dama, 35, and two passengers Koram Bhanushali, and Aniket Bansode were arrested on Sunday, and the police have added BNS section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) to the charges registered against the trio. A police officer said, “Our teams have planned to fan out to find his relatives and to identify him, however, we don’t have any positive leads yet.”

According to the police, early on Saturday morning, the deceased was standing on a footpath when the SUV broke through a metallic railing, climbed onto a 3-foot high footpath, and rammed into him, pinning him against a nearby shop. Locals found him and rushed him to the Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar East.

The police said that the two women in the car helped Bansode escape and were themselves trying to flee when locals held them back. Later, since the two women promised to cooperate with the investigation, they were served notices and allowed to leave.

The Ghatkopar police initially booked the trio under sections 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 125 (rash or negligent act that endangers human life or the personal safety of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 184 (driving dangerously), 185 (driving by a drunken person or by a person under the influence of drugs), and 134 (duty of driver in case of accident and injury to a person) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

After criticism from senior police officers, the police also added section 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the BNS, which has now been converted into section 105 after the victim’s death. “We arrested the three accused on Sunday and got their police custody for two days,” said a police officer.

According to the police, Dama ran ABC Garbha Classes in Ghatkopar, Mulund and Vashi with three other friends. The police said that Dama and Koram had been drinking all night long and decided to meet Bansode for breakfast before dropping Koram home. When they neared Nana Nani park, Dama lost control of the vehicle and rammed into the victim. She alleged that she was trying to press the breaks but hit the accelerator instead.