The driver of a vehicle who tragically struck a 73-year-old lady in Mumbai last week and attempted to claim it was an accident for which he bears no responsibility and in which he actually assisted the victim by driving her to a hospital has been detained, police said on Wednesday. They said that the incident happened while Pushpa Dhanaji Keni crossed a road in Sion, Central Mumbai, on her way to a shrine.
The lady allegedly fainted abruptly while crossing the street on September 10 and fell in front of the defendant’s SUV, who has been named as Ismail Ansari. Nevertheless, he claimed that CCTV evidence allowed for the identification of the motorist as at-fault for the collision.
Ansari called her daughter, a head booking clerk for the Central Railway, via her cellphone after striking Keni with his vehicle to let her know she had fallen on the road due to dizziness and that he was transporting her to Sion Hospital for treatment, the source said. The woman’s daughter was also invited to the hospital by the car’s driver. According to the official, the elderly woman’s daughter paid a visit to the hospital and thanked Ansari for providing prompt assistance to her mother.
But he said that after receiving treatment, Keni passed away the next day, and she was also given last rites. Last Saturday, a police officer at the Sion police station discovered that Keni was indeed struck by Ansari while reviewing CCTV video of the scene.
The victim’s son and the automobile driver were both shown the video by the police. An FIR was filed against Ansari under IPC sections 304A (causing death by carelessness), 279 (rash driving), and 337 (causing harm by act endangering life or personal safety of others), as well as the pertinent laws of the Motor Vehicles Act, after her son made a complaint to the Sion police station.
Later, the car’s driver was taken into custody.
