A 36-year-old rickshaw puller, who was sleeping on Versova beach, was crushed by an SUV car, resulting in his death, while his other companion was injured. A case of culpable homicide was registered against two people, including the car driver, who fled after the accident and both have been arrested. His blood samples have been taken and sent for testing. The deceased rickshaw puller has been identified as Ganesh Yadav.
Ganesh Yadav lived in Sagar Kutir in Versova. On Sunday night, Ganesh and his friend Bablu Srivastava went to sleep on Versova Beach because it was very hot in their houses. Around 5 am on Monday morning, a white SUV with registration number MH-32-FE-3033 crushed Ganesh who was sleeping on the beach. Due to which he died, while his companion Ganesh was injured.
The accused ran away from the spot after being crushed.
Two people got down from the car and tried to wake Ganesh, but he did not respond. Soon after, both the men fled the spot with the car. As soon as information about the incident was received, Versova police reached the spot and took the injured Ganesh to Cooper Hospital for treatment, where he died. Versova police have registered a case under various sections, including 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 125 (A) (endangering life), 239 (willful omission by person bound to give information).
Court sent him to police custody for five days
Versova police arrested the SUV driver Nikhil Javale (34), a director of a cab service, and his friend Shubham Dongre (33), a resident of Airoli and also a partner in the cab business, both from Nagpur. The accused were produced in Andheri court on Tuesday, where the court sent them to five-day police custody.
A senior police officer said the driver and his friend were arrested within hours of committing the crime. Initially he did not appear under the influence of alcohol. However, his blood samples were taken to check whether he was drunk at the time of the incident. Although vehicles are not allowed on the beach, the car entered a narrow path passing through slums and crushed a man sleeping on the beach.
Caught with the help of local resident
A local resident captured a photograph of the vehicle’s number plate on his mobile phone, which helped the Versova police trace the two men within three hours of the incident. Jawale and Dongre had rented a car from Satish for their cab business. An official said the incident took place when Jawale and Dongre came to Mumbai after dropping a customer and reached the beach, where entry of vehicles is restricted.