Mumbai drunk driving case: She didn’t show any remorse, say victims’ kin

Mumbai: Thirty-five year old lawyer Janhavi Gadkar — who rammed her Audi Q3 into a taxi, killing two people — is said to have been so drunk that she was made to sleep in police custody for six hours before regaining a state fit enough to give her statement in.

Gadkar, while returning from Marine Plaza after allegedly downing six pegs of whiskey, drove past the wrong side of the Eastern Freeway at a speed of 120km, killing Muhammad Salim Saboonvala and Muhammad Abdul Sayyad, apart from injuring all members of the Saboonvala family.

Relatives of the family who reached the police station soon after they were informed about the accident said they saw Gadkar for the first time.

“I saw her only for five minutes as the policemen were protective of her since she was a woman. She was not even able to stand or sit properly. When the policemen were trying to record her statement, she kept blabbering only about money and dropping the case. She even broke out into fits of laughter at frequent intervals. She was that drunk…” said Emraan Modi, Salim’s friend, who saw her at the police station.

Read: 2 killed as woman lawyer-driven Audi rams taxi in Mumbai

Family members said that even when she was brought in the morning, she appeared to have no regrets over what happened the night before. “She was offering bribes to the policemen. She was not at all remorseful or did not have even a bit of shame in her eyes. She carried such negative attitude that even we were ashamed,” said Rafeeq Saboonvala, brother of the deceased Salim.

Rafeeq also alleged that there was no trace of any injury on her body when she was at the police station that morning, but when she was brought to court, they saw her hands plastered. “She wants to ask for mercy and bail on medical grounds as we have been informed by highly placed officials. We are praying that she never gets out of jail and gets the most brutal punishment,” said Rafeeq.

Nilofer, daughter of the taxi driver Sayyad, who too was killed in the accident, said she wanted justice for her father.

“The woman drove past the wrong side of the freeway at high speeds for four kilometres as has been seen in the CCTV footage. Where was the police while she was driving through the entire stretch? I am unable to understand how they could not stop her before the accident happened,” said Nilofer.

She added that in the 35 years of his life as a driver, Sayyad had never had a single accident. “And this first one was to kill him,” she said.

According to family members, the woman had already had near collisions with four vehicles at dangerous speed she was in, as told to them by police officials. “But she was only destined to hit my friend’s taxi and take his life,” said Modi.