Woman lawyer sent to 14-day judicial custody in drunken driving case

 

Mumbai, June 12  A Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrate on Friday sent to judicial custody till June 26 corporate lawyer Janhavi Ajit Gadkar, charged with killing two persons by ramming her car into a taxi on the Eastern Freeway here.

Gadkar, 35, allegedly confessed to being drunk at the time of the accident. Police said her medical reports confirmed higher-than-permissible alcohol content in her blood.

Working as a top legal executive with Reliance Industries at Nariman Point here, she was arrested soon after the accident early Tuesday and remanded to police custody for two days.

Police produced her before Kurla Court Magistrate Richa Khedekar on Friday, who sent her to judicial custody till June 26.

She was charged under IPC section pertaining to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which attracts a 10-year jail sentence and fine. Bollywood actor Salman Khan was convicted last month under this section.

According to police and eyewitnesses, Gadkar allegedly sped for nearly 11 km along the Eastern Freeway on the wrong side and rammed her AudiQ3 car into the cab coming from the opposite direction, killing cab driver Mohammed Hafez Abdul Syed, 55, and a passenger, M. Salim Sabuwala, 50. 

Sabuwala's wife Hafiza, 45, daughter Sabiya, 22, and son Noman, 18, are battling for life in a hospital owing to serious injuries received in the accident.