Weeks after Janhavi Gadkar case, drunk designer rams SUV into tea stall, injures one

Mumbai: A 25-year-old woman fashion designer, believed to be driving in an inebriated condition, allegedly rammed her SUV into a tea stall in suburban Bandra injuring a roadside vendor, police said on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_2322258” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The mishap occurred in the wee hours on Tuesday when the accused Nidhi Parekh’s Chevrolet hit another car before ramming into the roadside tea stall on Carter Road and then into an autorickshaw, they said. Parekh was later arrested by Khar police and her initial medical report found that she was driving ‘drunk’, they said. Police have booked Parekh under sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and section 185 of Motor Vehicle Act. “As of now, we have seized the Chevrolet, the autorickshaw and the Santro car. If owners of these vehicles (Santro and autorickshaw) come forward against Parekh we will register their complaints too,” said Khar police station senior inspector Dattatray Bargude. Parekh locked herself inside her car for nearly an hour after the accident as she was afraid of public outrage, he said. “She refused to come out of the car. We then called women constables and a key-maker who opened door of the car, following which she was taken to police station,” the senior inspector said. He said by the time the police team reached the spot around 2:45 am, the passersby had already rushed the injured person to Bhabha Hospital while Parekh was insisting people to let her car pass. We took her to the police station and got the breath analyser test done on her. We then allowed her to go home because as per law a woman cannot be arrested late at night, Bargude said, adding Parekh was placed under arrest after she came to police station later in the day. She was later released on bail, he added. The incident came close on the heels of the one involving a corporate lawyer, Janhavi Gadkar, who allegedly rammed her high-end Audi into a taxi on the Eastern Freeway last month, killing two occupants of the taxi. Gadkar was subsequently arrested. In another incident near Bandra reclamation recently, a woman, who was driving her car ‘heavily drunk’ created a scene when she refused to open doors of her car. Police had to break the glass windows to get her out. After Gadkar incident, police have roped in women personnel to conduct random checks on women drivers to find out whether they are driving under the influence of alcohol. PTI