 "‘Uda de isko’: The horrifying tale of a bureaucrat’s son who tried to mow down girlfriend")
A 26-year-old woman has accused her boyfriend and his friends of assaulting her and trying to run her over with his car in Maharashtra’s Thane. The victim, identified as Priya Singh, has recounted the harrowing details of the incident on her Instagram account. The accused Ashwajit Gaikwad, whom she claims to have been dating for four and a half years, is the son of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation managing director, Anil Gaikwad. What is the case about? Let’s take a closer look. Woman narrates ordeal Priya Singh, who runs a beauty salon with her elder sister in Thane, told the police that her boyfriend, Ashwajit, called her for a function at a hotel in Ovla, Thane in the wee hours of 11 December, reported Hindustan Times (HT). She went to the function around 3 am and saw her partner with another woman, who Priya then learned was his wife, as per the HT report. The victim, a social media influencer with over one million followers on Instagram, said she tried to talk to Ashwajit several times. Still, he refused to budge, according to the report. Priya also accused Ashwajit’s friend Romil Patil of abusing her. “Upon reaching there I met some friends and found that my boyfriend was behaving strangely. So I asked him if everything was fine and insisted him for us to talk in private,” Priya wrote in a post on her Instagram. She said she went outside the venue and waited for Ashwajit to talk to him. He came out with his friends who started “insulting” her. When she asked her boyfriend to intervene, he allegedly assaulted her. “My boyfriend and his friend used abusive language to which I asked my boyfriend to defend me and not abuse which led to the start of something beyond my imagination. My boyfriend slapped me, tried to strangle my neck, I tried to push him away he bit my hand, beat me, pulled my hair, and his friend out of nowhere pushed me to the ground,” Priya wrote in her post. ALSO READ: Cruelty by husband, kidnapping & more: How crimes against women are on the rise again in India ‘Uda de isko’ According to her complaint at the Kasarvadavli police station, when Priya tried to collect her phone and other belongings from Ashwajit’s SUV, he allegedly asked his driver to mow her down. “While they got into the car and started moving, I realised that my phone and purse was in the car. As soon as I reached the door of the Range Rover, I heard him (Ashwajit Gaikwad) say ‘uda de isko’ (ram into her) to his driver Sagar. He sped up immediately and I fell to the ground as I was hit by the left side of the car, after which he drove the rear left wheel over my right leg,” HT cited her complaint as saying.
She claimed she was lying in pain on the road for almost half an hour before a passerby stopped and called for help. Priya said Ashwajit’s driver returned after a while to check if she was “dead or alive” and then took her to a hospital to “avoid any involvement of the police”. As per the social media influencer, the driver also threatened her not to complain about the incident while taking her to the hospital. Priya said she had to undergo surgery as the bone below her right knee fractured. The pictures shared by her show bruises all over her body. She further alleged in her Instagram post on 15 December that some of Ashwajit’s friends had been visiting the hospital for the past couple of days and “threatening” her sister because of the FIR. The police have filed a case against Ashwajit and his two accomplices under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 279 (rash driving on a public way) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as per HT. The victim’s sister alleged Ashwajit and his accomplices tried to murder Priya. “But the police have merely registered an accident case. Why? Is it because he is the son of the managing director of MSRDC?” HT quoted her as saying. No arrests have been made so far in the case. Ashwajit Gaikwad rejects charges Ashwajit Gaikwad, who is reportedly the president of Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJYM), Thane division, has rejected the allegations and claimed he and Priya were just “friends”. He also alleged the incident was a plot to “extort money”, sources told India Today. As per his version, “She (Priya) came in a drunken condition to a hotel where I was involved in a family function and forced me to talk to her. When I refused, she started abusing me. She also assaulted my friends when they tried to intervene in the matter. When my driver, Shelke, started my car so that she would step aside, she fell. The accident was not intentional.” “This is nothing, but a way to extort money from me. I have also given her money in the past and I have all the records”, India Today quoted Ashwajit as saying. With inputs from agencies