Hit-and-run victim or a negligent rider?

Hit-and-run victim or a negligent rider?
Peer Mohammad Khan, 55, knocked down by a bike, says family; cops book him for running over civic official.

A55-year-old Sanpada resident is battling for life for the last three weeks, following an accident that has two versions to it. The family of the man, Peer Mohammad Khan, has alleged that he was a victim of a hit-and-run on October 6, when his scooter was knocked down by three men riding a motorbike. Khan, who is comatose, was rushed to a municipal hospital by a passer-by.

The Navi Mumbai police, however, have booked Khan for rash and negligent driving after a Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) official filed a complaint saying Khan had rammed his scooter into his colleague, while the latter was crossing the road. The injured NMMC official is now recuperating at Sion Hospital, the complaint said.

The family’s version

Khan, a businessman, was returning home from Koparkhairane late in the night on October 6 when his Activa was knocked down by a motorbike, Khan’s son Aamir said.

“I received a call from my father’s number, and the caller identified himself as Gulshan Sharma. He said that three men riding a Karizma had escaped after ramming into my father’s scooter at the Koparkhairane circle, and that he had rushed him to a civic hospital. We later shifted him to MGM Hospital in Vashi,” Aamir said.

He further alleged that the police did not give the family the first information report (FIR) copy, needed to process the medical insurance claim. “I was given the FIR copy on October 13, in which there is no mention of Gulshan Sharma’s version of the accident. Shockingly, my father is shown as an accused, who had run over an NMMC official named Suresh Shinde,” Aamir said.

He said that the complainant, Govind Satamkar, who works in the Waste Management Department of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, could be the one riding the bike that rammed into his father’s scooter.

Aftab Siddique, an activist from Bandra who has taken up Khan’s case with the Navi Mumbai police, alleged that the cops were “threatening the witnesses”.

“Why are the police not showing us the CCTV footage of the accident site,” Siddique asked, adding, “There are witnesses who have identified the complainants as the men riding the motorbike, but there is no mention of it in the FIR. I wrote to the Navi Mumbai police commissioner and the DGP but haven’t received a reply. An innocent man, who is a victim in this case, is being framed.”

The police’s version

Senior Inspector Satish Gaikwad from Koparkhairane Police Station said that the witnesses’ versions and the Khan family’s claims have been looked into, and insisted that Khan was made an accused after a thorough probe. “We have registered the case as per the witnesses’ statements and facts,” he said.

Satamkar’s complaint said that he along with a colleague were on a bike, and had stopped at D Mart Junction in Koparkhairane, where their third colleague, Suresh Shinde, was crossing the road to board a bus.

“A speeding Activa rammed into Shinde, and both him and the rider sustained injuries. We rushed Shinde to a local hospital, before shifting him to the civic-run hospital. He was later shifted to Sion Hospital,” the complaint said.