In a tragic incident on August 12, a 36-year-old rickshaw driver, Ganesh Yadav, was crushed to death by a speeding SUV while sleeping on a pavement near Versova Beach in Mumbai. The Versova police have arrested two individuals in connection with the fatal accident.
The incident occurred in the early hours when Yadav, along with another rickshaw driver, Bablu Srivastava, was resting near the beach to escape Mumbai’s humid conditions. The SUV, driven by Nagpur businessman Nikhil Jawale (34) and accompanied by his friend Shubam Dongre (33), suddenly veered off course and struck the sleeping men. While Yadav was killed instantly, Srivastava sustained injuries but survived.
Jawale and Dongre were arrested by the Versova police and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. They were presented before a local court in Andheri, which remanded them to five-day police custody for further investigation. Authorities have also sent their blood samples for testing to determine if they were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
This incident adds to a growing list of fatal hit-and-run cases in Mumbai. Recently, a woman was killed on July 7 after a speeding BMW struck her bike and dragged her for over 100 meters. The driver, Mihir Shah, was later arrested and sent to judicial custody. A forensic report later revealed that Shah was not under the influence of alcohol during the incident, despite earlier reports suggesting otherwise.
