Mumbai BMW hit-and-run case: CM Shinde must stop grandstanding to divert attention, says Aaditya Thackeray

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 9 (ANI): Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday attacked Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde over the Mumbai BMW hit-and-run case, saying that he must stop the “grandstanding” to divert attention from the case.

“The illegal CM must stop the grandstanding to divert attention from the hit-and-run case. It is clear, the accused, Mihir Rajesh Shah, must be caught and brought to justice. All the grandstanding about his concern and directives to the police is simply an eye wash,” Thackeray said in a post on X.

“With all the CCTV cameras and intelligence network in place, can’t they catch the accused in 48 hours? Will either the illegal CM or the home minister answer why they’ve failed to locate and arrest the accused? Is it the failure of the Home Dept? Or the CCTV? Or simply the political connections that are delaying the arrest?” he added.

The incident took place in Worli on Sunday. The BMW car ran over a couple riding a bike, killing the woman and injuring her husband.

Following the incident, Chief Minister Shinde on Monday directed the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai to curb the drunk and drive cases, and instructed the administration to check the people driving vehicles on all the roads, squares and crowded places and initiate stringent action against those found drunk while driving.

Worli Police on Monday said that Rajesh Shah, the father of Mihir Shah, accused in the hit-and-run case, had made several calls to the 24-year-old after the accident.

Police also said that prior to the incident, Mihir had visited a pub in Juhu with his friends to party and that statements of three of his friends who were present with him before the incident have been taken.

The Mumbai Police has formed 14 teams to arrest Mihir Shah who has been missing since he the car he was allegedly driving hit a scooter on Dr Annie Besant Road in Worli. A lookout notice has been issued for Mihir, who is absconding.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde expressed alarm at the “rise in hit-and-run incidents in Maharashtra.” He said the guilty would not be spared and directed the police to take action.

“No one, whether rich, influential, or the offspring of bureaucrats or ministers, affiliated with any party, will have immunity as long as I am the Chief Minister of the State. I have zero tolerance for injustice,” Shinde said in a post on X.

On July 7, Mihir’s father Rajesh Shah and another person Raj Rishi Rajendra Singh Vidawat were arrested for not cooperating with the police.

The 45-year-old woman who was killed in the July 7 incident has been identified as Kaveri Nakhwa, a resident of Worli Koliwada.

She was riding pillion on the scooter driven by her husband, who is undergoing treatment at a hospital for the injuries he sustained during the incident, police said.

“A BMW car ran over two people riding a bike. The woman died in the incident and the other person was injured. The incident took place at 5:30 am when the couple riding a bike were passing in front of the Atria Mall in Worli,” a statement from the Mumbai Police detailing the incident read.

The police said that after the incident “the driver fled the spot with his car.”

“The accident happened when the couple from the fishing community was returning home after buying fish. The husband managed to jump off the speeding vehicle. The woman injured in the accident died during the treatment,” police said.

The police also said that the luxury car belonged to the leader of a political party based in Maharashtra’s Palghar.

The incident in Worli follows less than two months after the Pune case in which A Porsche car allegedly driven by a 17-year-old boy allegedly under the influence of alcohol rammed into a motorbike resulting in the deaths of two software engineers in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area in the early hours of May 19.