Thursday, June 18, 2015



Jun 11 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Drunk lawyer may have knocked down 2 guards on a bike last wk 
Mumbai
TNN


Doc `Recognizes' Gadkar As Being Involved In Govandi Mishap RIL Exec Remanded In 2 More Days Of Police Custody As Sleuths Build Case & Victims' Families Try To Cope With Loss & Injuries 
High-flying corporate lawyer Janhavi Gadkar, arrested on charges of killing two persons while driving drunk on Tuesday , had knocked down two BARC security guards on a motorbike in Govandi just days ago, said police sources.The guards sustained minor injuries and all three landed up in the nearby Shatabdi hospital early on Saturday .When police took Janhavi to the same hospital on Wednesday for a medical check-up, a doctor recognized the petite 35-year-old as the “same woman'' who was brought in last Saturday .
Earlier on Wednesday , Janhavi, vice-president (legal) at Reliance Industries, appeared in a Kurla court with her left hand in a cast. The magistrate extended her police custody till Friday , accepting the plea that the police needed “to verify where and whether she purchased more liquor before the crash“. The RCF police are still awaiting the Forensic Science Laboratory report about the alcohol content in the blood of lawyer Janhavi Gadkar but the probe team claimed important evidence: a Hotel Marine Plaza bill (receipt) of Rs 4,500 for six pegs of whisky . Besides, it has collected CCTV footage showing Janhavi and her two colleagues entering the hotel on Monday .
Janhavi, driving back home early on Tuesday after drinking, sped over 11km down the wrong lane of the Eastern Freeway in her red Audi Q3 SUV , scraped two cars before colliding with a taxi and killing the driver and a passenger.
Early on Wednesday , the police recreated and video-recorded the sequence of events on the Freeway . Around 1am, the team started from the Masjid bunder end with the two witnesses whose cars had been scraped. They identified the accident spots.
Haji Salim Sabuwalla, 50, a soap trader in Null Bazaar who was returning home with his family after celebrating his son's success in the SSC examination at a Bhiwandi dhaba, and taxi driver Hussain Sayyed, 57, were killed after a collision with Janhavi's Audi just south of the Panjarpol tunnel.
Janhavi has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, an offence that can put her to prison for 10 years.
Sabuwalla's wife, who underwent surgery for multiple fractures, hasn't been informed about her husband's death. Her two daughters too are in hospital. Sources said 16-year-old Noman, released after first aid, is in trauma and feels guilty for his father's death.
Sayyed was buried on Wednesday after his daughter, married and settled in London, arrived in the city.
At 1.30pm on Wednesday , in aKurla court room, the slim, 5fttall Janhavi was brought in barefoot by two women constables.Dressed in a cotton salwar kameez with its blue-and-pink dupatta covering her head, she was sobbing into a kerchief as husband Rahul Sarela, also a awyer, comforted her. Janhavi who married Sarela, 42, in 2002 has been staying separately sin ce 2010 as they do not get along.
Public prosecutor Prahlad Mahajan sought additional po ice remand from metropolitan magistrate Richa Khedekar, say ng a day's remand following her arrest was “insufficient since most of it went in her treat ment“. A watching lawyer for RIL was present, said sources.
Janhavi's lawyer sought ju dicial custody , saying custodia interrogation was not necessa ry anymore and that she was in need of “urgent medical treat ment... (for) multiple fractures and suspected internal injuri es“. Judicial custody would ha ve enabled him to apply for bail.
After she returned to police custody , it emerged that Janha vi, at the wheel of the red Audi, had hit a bike carrying guard Sharad Medekar and his colleague near the BARC colony late on Friday .
“After Friday's incident was brought to our notice, we found that Janhavi had accidentally hit the bikers and herself took the guards to the hospital. No major injuries were found. The victims complained of damage to their bike and they settled the case,“ said a police officer on condition of anonymity .
DCP (zone VI) Sangramsingh Nishandkar said: “It was a minor incident and it appears she helped the victims by taking them to hospital and giving them treatment. As the injuries were minor, the Govandi police did not bring this on record.“
But another opinion was doing the rounds in the local police circle. “If the police had booked her and carried out a blood test on Friday itself, perhaps the fresh incident could have been prevented,“ said one official.
Janhavi's colleagues who partied with her have been summoned. They could face a rough time as senior police officials believe it was their responsibility to drop her home as she was inebriated. “Her colleagues should have realized she was not in control and called a driver or dropped her home,“ said one. 






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