A senior executive at one of the country's leading corporate companies, Janhavi Gadkar was returning from south Mumbai to Chembur on the Eastern Freeway late on Tuesday when, apparently driving her Audi on the wrong side of the road, she collided head on into a taxi.
An independent witness has come forward and given a statement to the police, in what comes as a booster shot for the probe into Tuesday night's alleged drunk driving accident on the Eastern Freeway.
A senior executive at one of the country's leading corporate companies, Janhavi Gadkar was returning from south Mumbai to Chembur on the Eastern Freeway late on Tuesday when, apparently driving her Audi on the wrong side of the road, she collided head on into a taxi. The taxi driver, Mohammad Salim, and one of the passengers, Mohammad Abdul Sayyad, died in the ensuing crash. Three others were injured in the crash. The cops say that the 35-year-old Reliance Industries employee was driving under influence, and had four times the permissible alcohol level in her bloodstream.
According to the RCF police, which is probing the matter, a taxi driver approached them on Saturday, telling them that he witnessed the entire accident involving Gadkar on the Freeway in the wee hours of Tuesday. “This is the first independent witness to tell us that he witnessed Gadkar's car colliding head on with a taxi,” said a police officer from RCF police station. “So far, we only had family members who were in the taxi as witnesses. With an independent witness coming forward, our case will become stronger.”
In his statement to the police, the taxi driver said that he was returning from CST towards Chembur late on Tuesday on the Eastern Freeway when he noticed a car driving in the middle lane on the other side of the road but going against the flow of traffic. “The taxi driver also pointed to his family that a driver was driving the car in the wrong lane and could meet with an accident,” the officer said. “A few minutes later, the taxi driver heard a loud noise and saw that there had been a major accident.”
The police will take the taxi driver to the accident scene to recreate the sequence of events. “He will be crucial in letting us know how she got onto the Freeway and drove so far in the wrong direction,” the officer added. They will also record the taxi driver's statement in front of a magistrate.
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