Youth knocked down, killed by vehicle driven by Maharashtra MLA’s nephew

Pune district police have arrested the nephew of a legislator from the ruling Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) after the sports utility vehicle (SUV) that the MLA’s nephew was allegedly driving on the wrong side rammed into a motorbike along the Pune-Nashik National Highway, killing a 19-year-old and injuring another person. The injured is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

According to the Manchar police (Ambegaon tehsil) authorities, a case has been registered against Mayur Mohite, who is in his 30s, and is the nephew of NCP (Ajit Pawar)‘s Dilip Mohite Patil, the MLA from Pune’s Khed-Alandi Assembly segment. The deceased has been identified as Om Bhalerao, a resident of Ambegaon.

Police officials said that the accused was driving his SUV on the wrong side of the highway at high speed when the car crashed into the motorbike, knocking down Bhalerao, who sustained multiple serious injuries and succumbed soon afterward.

The authorities, who are ascertaining the exact sequence of events, say that the accident occurred on June 22 between 9 p.m. and 9.30 p.m., and that Mr. Mayur Mohite apparently fled the scene without helping or ensuring medical assistance to the victim. This is denied by his uncle, Mr. Mohite Patil.

Mr. Mohite Patil, a three-term MLA from Khed Alandi, told reporters that his nephew had not only helped send the injured to the hospital after calling an ambulance, he had surrendered at a police station after the accident.

“I advised my nephew to go to the police station as a mob had started gathering at the accident spot. He went there and has remained there since the time of the accident. I am not someone who will try to influence any probe,” Mr. Mohite Patil said.

He further refuted allegations that his nephew had been driving under the influence of alcohol, claiming his nephew never consumed alcohol.

The incident comes on the heels of the Pune luxury car accident in which an inebriated 17-year-old, the son of a prominent city realtor, rammed into a motorbike killing two IT professionals in the city’s upmarket Kalyani Nagar area in May.

The subsequent probe has since opened a Pandora’s box as investigations revealed a major cover-up involving medical, judicial and political authorities, leading to the arrests of doctors from Pune’s Sassoon General Hospital, and allegations involving another MLA from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, whom the Opposition has accused of “influencing” the probe.