Mumbai BMW hit-and-run: Accused Mihir Shah arrested after 2 days, his sisters and mother detained

An officer under the condition of anonymity said, “Mihir was hiding with his mother Meena, two sisters Pooja and Kinjal in a resort at Murbad. On Monday night, one of Mihir’s Palghar based friend went there after which Mihir went to Virar along with the friend.”
At Virar, the friend switched on his phone for 15 minutes due to which Mihir was traced.

“Our team had initially traced Mihir’s family in Murbad from where we got the mobile number of the friend, following which his number was put on surveillance,” said an officer. Police had earlier issued a Look Out Circular (LoC) against Mihir, suspecting he could flee the country.

“We have apprehended Mihir and are probing further to understand the sequence of his hiding locations after he escaped from the accident spot,” the officer added.

The Mumbai Police’s crime branch have also detained the mother, his two elder sisters and a friend named Avdeep for allegedly helping him escape after the accident. They were detained from a resort in Murbad and have been handed over to the Worli police for further investigation.

When asked whether the five detainees will be arrested, a senior police officer said, “We are yet to take a call on that because we are still ascertaining their exact role in the crime.”

Police sources said that one of the two sisters had picked up Mihir from his friend’s place in Goregaon and dropped near Thane. After that Mihir, his two sisters and mother hid themselves in different hotels in Thane, near Nashik and in Murbad.

The family members were travelling in a hired car and police have detained its driver.

On Sunday, Mihir allegedly rammed the BMW car he was driving into a two-wheeler on which Pradip Nakhwa, 50, and his wife Kaveri Nakhwa, 45, were travelling in Worli. Kaveri was allegedly dragged for nearly two kilometres after she got stuck between the bumper and the tyre of the vehicle. She was later flung on to the road, leading to her death.

According to police, Mihir switched seats with his driver Rajrishi Bidawat and contacted his father Rajesh, who asked him to flee and instructed the driver to take responsibility for the accident.

Both Rajesh and Bidawat were arrested in the case. While Rajesh was released on bail on Monday, Bidawat was produced before a court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody till July 11.

Seeking Bidawat’s maximum custody, police told the court, “Bidawat is actively involved in the crime and has been misleading us through the interrogation. We will soon get the main accused to Mumbai. We want to confront them and interrogate the two accused together.”

The investigators also claimed that the two accused tampered with the number plate and the sticker of the vehicle. “We have to recover the number plate and also check whether both Mihir and Bidawat had consumed alcohol or drugs,” police told the court.

Police also learnt that Mihir had visited a bar in Juhu along with his four friends hours before the accident. On Monday night, the Maharashtra excise department sealed the Global Tapas bar.

On Tuesday, police said that they have recovered a CCTV footages from the bar which clearly shows that Mihir had consumed alcohol.

Congress Member of Parliament Varsha Gaikwad and MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande met the zonal deputy commissioner of police on Tuesday.

Raising questions over police’s role, Gaikwad said, “It appears that the police are being pressurised politically. It is not a case of hit and run, but it is a murder.”