Mumbai: Reactions have been coming in thick and fast over the case in which a senior bureaucrat's son in Maharashtra, allegedly tried to mow down his girlfriend with his car near a hotel in Thane district. The incident was confirmed by the police. Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has now commented on the issue. Assuring of action in the case, the minister said, "Whether it is an officer's son or some big leader's son, he will have to bear the whip of the law and Constitution. No matter who it is, if they have committed this crime, then they would be punished."
Earlier, speaking on the issue and questions raised if there was delay in action in the case since it invovled the son of a senior bureaucrat or a VVIP person, police said that proper action was being taken in the case and that investigation was underway. Action was taken on the basis of outcome of investigations, said the police. However, a senior officer evaded questions when asked about the arrest of the accused and "extortion" angle that was emerging.
Police registered a case against accused Ashwajit Gaikwad and two others under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 279 (rash driving), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and others at the Kasarvadavali police station, according to news agency PTI.
Victim Priya Singh, in her statement to news agency ANI, said that the accused had claimed that he was separated from him wife and that they were "very much in love." However, she claimed that she went to meet her boyfriend who is son of a senior bureaucrat and found him with his wife. When she tried to ask him questions over the matter, the accused got aggressive, said the victim. She added that she was in a four-and-a-half-year relationship with the man who tried to mow her down.
"I did not know earlier that he was married. Later, when I came to know he told me that they (his wife & him) were not together anymore, they had separated. He said that he wanted to marry me. I was staying with him for a long time. When I went to meet him that night, he was with his wife," she said.
"I was in shock when I went to talk to him, he got aggressive. We had a fight. Three bones in my right leg are broken, it has been operated on. From my left shoulder to my hips I've deep injuries. I cannot move my body. Four days ago I went to file an FIR, the day all this happened. But no action was taken. Today, when I posted on the social media, the police have supported me today," Priya Singh said in her statement.
"The incident took place around 4.30 am on Monday (December 11) near a hotel on Ghodbunder Road, where the woman had gone to meet Gaikwad. An argument broke out between the two. Later, when the victim collected her belongings from his car and started leaving, the one who was driving the vehicle tried to mow her down, due to which she fell down and suffered serious injuries," a police official said.
It was after the woman posted about this incident on social media, as mentioned by her in her statement to police that action was taken on it.
