"This is not hit-and-run case but murder": Congress' Varsha Gaikwad on Worli case

MUMBAI: Congress leader Varsha Gaikwad on Tuesday met Pradeep Nakhwa, husband of the victim Kaveri Nakhwa, who was killed after a BMW rammed into their bike on early Sunday and said that the Worli case is not a hit-and-run case but murder. After meeting with Nakhwa, Gaikwad while speaking with the reporters said, "This is a very bad incident. The family is demanding justice. If you look into it, this is not a case of hit and run but murder, because after hitting the couple, if he had stopped the car, then this would not have happened. Instead, he drove the vehicle fast and dragged her for a long time and she died."

The Congress leader also targeted the police and said, "The Mumbai Police took three days to arrest the accused and now the alcohol can't be traced in his body. Why this happened? He should have been arrested on the same day." Gaikwad also said that usually, CCTV footage comes out in such hit-and-run cases. She added, "This is the first case where police are not providing the footage. Even the family is not being given the footage... I don't know whom the police is trying to protect. I would appeal to the police to not limit the charges to hit-and-run but include murder as well." Meanwhile, a Mumbai court on Tuesday extended the police custody of Rajesh Shah's driver, Rajrishi Singh Bidawat, in the Worli hit-and-run case until Thursday, July 11. According to officials, Shah's driver, Bidawat was with Mihir Shah (23) - the son of political leader Rajesh Shah and the main accused in the case - when the luxury car struck and killed a 45-year-old woman, Kaveri Nakhwa, and injured her husband.

"We have to interrogate Mihir and the driver together. We need his custody because he takes drugs and was present at the time of the accident. They ran over a woman with the car," Mumbai police said while arguing in court on Tuesday. During the hearing, the defence lawyer said that police have no evidence of the driver's involvement. "The driver was not in that pub. Police have no evidence that he took drugs or consumed any such thing. There is no point in police custody without evidence," the lawyer said. Mihir Shah, the main accused in the hit-and-run case, was arrested from Virar on Tuesday. Shah had been absconding after the car he was allegedly driving hit a scooter on Dr Annie Besant Road in Worli on Sunday, July 7. Fourteen teams were formed by Mumbai police to nab him. Police arrested Rajrishi Singh Bidawat and Mihir's father, Rajesh Shah, for their alleged involvement in the case. Following the tragic incident, Nakhwa questioned the delay in the arrest of the accused and alleged that he dragged his wife from Ceejay House to Sea Link Road. "It was due to 'politics' and the accused would not be arrested until the Vidhan Sabha session ends," Nakhwa had claimed. He also alleged that the delay in the arrest was because the accused is the son of a political leader.