Woman flung out of six-seater rickshaw dies, driver held

Vadodara: A 36-year-old woman living in Panigate died allegedly due to negligence of a six-seater auto driver at Sevasi near the city on Sunday evening.
Deceased Kureshabanu Mullawala, living in Nalbandwada locality in Panigate, was returning home after visiting her sister Sharifa and brother-in-law Riyaz Khan Pathan at Anklav in Anand when the accident took place. The auto driver identified as Suresh Machhi was arrested by Vadodara rural police on Monday.
According to police, after the auto crossed effluent treatment plant (ETP) canal near Bhimpura, Machhi took a sharp turn at a high speed due to which Mullawala was flung out of the auto and suffered head injuries which resulted in her death.
Locals said that even after the woman had flung out, Machhi did not stop to check on her, instead, he stopped his auto few metres away asking Mullawala’s five-year-old son Mohammed Solan and two other passengers to get out of his auto.
“Had the auto driver stopped and helped my sister-in-law by taking her to a nearby hospital she could have been saved, but he was so insensitive that he not only stopped away, but also asked my nephew to get down from the auto so that he can flee away,” said Pathan. He added that Mullawala had come to visit them on the occasion of Eid and after staying over for two days, she was returning home as her son’s school was also reopening.
Locals said that two women, who were riding their scooter right behind the auto, followed Machhi to note down his auto’s registration number. They returned to the accident spot some minutes later and handed over the auto’s number to locals.
Pathan then lodged an offence of rash driving and causing death due to negligence on the basis of the auto’s registration number at Vadodara Taluka police station. Cops tracked Machhi down to Umeta and arrested him on Monday. “He said that he got scared after the accident so he stopped few hundred metres away and asked all to get down of his auto,” said sub-inspector P J Kharsana.