17-year-old’s friend to be police witness

Darsh Jain, who was in the car with accused, said it was a nerve-wracking incident.

The Marine Drive police on Thursday made 17-year-old Darsh Jain a witness in the case against his friend, Yash Bohra, 17, who lost control of his father’s car during a joyride and killed 74-year-old Sampat Maroo, injured two police constables and hit two parked cars.

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Bohra had picked up Jain from his home near Girgaum Chowpatty and the duo was close to Churchgate when the accident took place on Wednesday morning.

Jain told the police they were planning to take a U-turn at the traffic island, which the car finally crashed into, and return home when Bohra lost control.

“It was a nerve-wracking incident. It was all so sudden that I could not understand what had happened,” Jain told the police in his statement. “I had told my parents that I would come home in a few minutes, but then we met with the accident.”

In his statement, Jain said that the Honda City took a left turn on to Dinshaw Waccha Road from Marine Drive, a car overtook them. Bohra hit the accelerator to follow the car and was trying to overtake a taxi ahead of his car when the accident took place.

“But cars were parked on both sides of the road ahead of the entrance gate to the Cricket Club of India and another car was coming from the other side and Yash lost control,” Jain said in his statement. Dr. Ravindra Shisve, deputy commissioner of police (zone I), said: “We will record the statements of all those people who saw the accident.”

The police also recorded the accounts of two KC College students who were in a taxi and said they saw Bohra driving the car.