Car dealer nabs hit-and-run driver

May 21st, 2007

Navi Mumbai: On a lazy Sunday afternoon, Mulund-based car dealer Haresh Bhai Gagwani (42) decided to check out some new cars on sale in Belapur CBD (central business district). The trip to Navi Mumbai helped him nab a fleeing motorist involved in a hit-and-run accident along Palm Beach Road.

“At around 3.45 pm, my uncle and I had reached the Seawoods end of Palm Beach Road, where I was stunned to see a driver in a silver Tata Indigo (MH 06 W 7686) hit a woman and her child while they were crossing the road. The driver did stop a little distance ahead to look back at the damage done, and then fled at a speed of nearly 100 km per hour,’’ recalled Gagwani.

He instinctively started chasing the driver, and even shouted at him to stop, but the accused (later identified as 38-year-old Santoshkumar Balkumar) kept dodging Gagwani to escape on the Palm Beach Road. He even took a sharp U-turn at Belapur to turn back towards Nerul side, but Gagwani managed to block him at the roadside after a 2 km chase.

The victims—27-year-old Josabin Makan Mopan and her seven-month son Sunil Makan Mopan—have been seriously injured in the accident. Josabin is a labourer working at Palm Beach Road.

As soon as Gagwani corned the fleeing driver, he immediately pulled him out and caught him in a bear-like hug so that he did not run away. At the same time, another motorist Amrit Pal Singh, who runs a local crime magazine ‘Gunheshod’ noticed the struggle between Gagwani and the accused driver and immediately called the police wireless van to the spot.

“He (Balkumar) kept threatening me as I held him tight, but I coolly told him not to show his ‘dadagiri’ and actually show some ‘insaniyat’ (humanity), as he had grievously hurt the woman and her child who were still lying on the road,’’ said Gagwani.

Meanwhile, Amrit Pal Singh stopped a motorcyclist to help take the bleeding child to hospital; the woman was still lying motionless, and later taken to a local hospital. Many people had gathered on Palm Beach Road to watch, but none came forward to help Gagwani and Singh.

The accused driver also seemed to be drunk. “If Haresh Bhai had not managed to chase and nab this drunk driver, he probably would have escaped from facing any police action,’’ said Amrit Pal Singh.

Meanwhile, the zonal deputy commissioner of police, Amar Jadhav, said that the accused Balkumar, who is a Nerul-based construction contractor has been arrested for rash and negligent driving under section 279 of the IPC. “We have also sent the accused for a medical test to see if he was drunk,’’ said Jadhav.

Source: TOI(Mumbai epaper)

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