JOIN USTwo months after she recklessly drove an Audi in an inebriated condition and dashed a taxi on the Eastern Freeway, killing two persons and injuring three others, the Mumbai Police on Monday charge-sheeted corporate lawyer Janhavi Gadkar for culpable homicide not amounting to murder– a charge that actor Salman Khan, too, has faced.
Gadkar, 35, the vice-president (Legal) of Reliance Industries Ltd on June 9 had consumed alcohol and on her way back home in an Audi, took a wrong lane on the Eastern Freeway and hit a taxi coming from Bhiwandi in Thane district, killing the driver, Sayed Hussain (57) and Salim Saboonwala ( 50), a businessman. Saboonwala and his family — wife Hafiza (40), daughters Salma (22) and Sadia (20), son Numan (16).
They were returning home after celebrating the son’s success in SSC exam where he scored 90 per cent. She was granted bail on August 5.
In the charge sheet, police have included Section 304, Part II of the Indian Penal Code, which is “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” and attracts a maximum punishment of 10 years jail.
It may be recalled, the 49-year-old Khan was convicted and sentenced to five-year jail term on May 6 by the Mumbai Sessions Court, for the September 28, 2002 drunken driving and hit-and-run incident in which one person died and four others were injured.
He had challenged his conviction in the Bombay High Court and is currently on bail.
The RCF police station of Mumbai has filed a 560-page charge sheet at the Kurla Magistrate’s court and it includes statements of 57 witnesses, including the statements of 14 witnesses that were recorded in magistrate’s court under the provisions of Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code.
It also included statements of Gadkar’s friends and doctors. The document also contains her medical reports, reports from RTO, postmortem reports and other forensic reports, besides CCTV footage from hotel and other evidences.