65-year-old comes to Mumbai for a day to attend wedding, dies after car crashes into her auto

Pratibha Korgaonkar was on her way to relatives’ homes to distribute her son’s wedding card when the accident took place in Goregaon; driver arrested and out on bail

A 65-year-old woman from Sawantwadi, Konkan, who had come to Mumbai just for a day to attend her nephew’s wedding and to distribute her son’s wedding card, was killed after the auto-rickshaw she was travelling in was knocked down by a speeding car in Goregaon (west) on Sunday.

Pratibha Korgaonkar was to return home by train later in the evening.

The accused, Rakesh Ranjan, 32, a small-time actor, has been arrested.

Pratibha Korgaonkar had come to Mumbai early on Sunday to attend her sister’s son’s wedding, and had attended the function around 11.30am. The accident took place around 3.30pm on Shrirang Sable Road in Siddharth Nagar, when Korgaonkar, a resident of Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg, was heading to Gorai in Borivli (west) to invite some relatives to her son’s wedding, to be held on April 25, the Goregaon police said. She was to return home by train later in the evening.

She was in the auto with her nieces Janhvi and Namrata Revdekar, 36, the complainant in the case. Their auto was going straight on the road when a speeding sedan came out of a lane and crashed into the three-wheeler, the complaint stated. The impact was such that the auto flipped twice before coming to a halt.

Korgaonkar suffered internal head injuries and was declared dead on admission at the hospital. Namrata has hurt her back and hand, and the auto driver has also suffered serious injuries. Both are currently in hospital, but their condition is stable and they are not in danger. Janhvi, the deceased’s other niece, escaped with minor abrasions.

The driver of the car was caught by a mob and handed over to the police. “He was not driving drunk. He has been booked for causing death due to rash and negligent driving under the Indian Penal Code,” a police official said, on condition of anonymity. A resident of Motilal Nagar in Goregaon (west), he was granted bail the same day.