Mumbai: BEST bus crushes 29-year-old woman to death in Malad, driver held

Mumbai: A 29-year-old woman, riding pillion on her friend’s two-wheeler, got crushed under the rear wheel of a BEST bus no 243 in Malad (West) on Wednesday morning. The deceased has been identified as Varsha Sonawane Shinde, who had come from Badlapur to meet her friend Ajinkya Shetkar who lives in Malad (East). She was a housewife and Shetkar works in the aviation industry.

The Malad police said she was riding pillion on Shetkar’s motorcycle. Shet-kar lost his balance when another two-wheeler came from the front and he could not get room to escape and accidentally hit the bus which was running parallel to his motorcycle. In no time, Shinde fell down and her face came under the rear wheel of the bus. Hearing public commotion, bus driver Arvind Mohite stopped his vehicle but it was too late. Shetkar sustained only minor bruises in the accident.

One of the passers-by informed the Malad police, whose team reached the spot and brought both of them to Shatabdi hospital. Senior medical officer of the hospital, Dr Sunil Shinde told the Free Press Journal, “She was brought dead at 10.30 am at our hospital. Her face was badly crushed so initially her identity was not established. Her friend, who was riding the two-wheeler, sustained minor bruises and has been discharged after administering first aid. After doing the panchnama, the body has been sent to Bhagwati hospital for post-mortem.”

Shinde and Shetkar were going to Dadar when they met with an accident on Marve Road. Her face was so badly crushed that police took nearly four hours to identify the body. “Her face was badly crushed beyond recognition. So it was tough for us to establish the identity of the body with the PAN number she was carrying. We had to call her relatives to identify the body with her clothes,” said an officer.

It took investigators nearly four hours to establish the identity of the body. However, no relative was in a condition to talk to media. “We arrested the bus driver and booked him under Section 304 (A) of the IPC. The motorcycle and BEST bus have been seized for further investigation,” said an officer of Malad police station. The body has been handed over to her relatives after conducting an autopsy. The CCTV of the stretch is being scrutinised.