22-year-old killed, 2 hurt in bike collision

Mumbai: A 22-year-old biker, Abhijeet Gurav, was killed, and two others were injured around 9.15 pm on Sunday after three motorcycles collided at a spot on a 300-metre street stretch in Bandra Reclamation, where several young men had been performing bike stunts.

The police said that Gurav, a former courier firm employee, was at the stretch to watch the “bike race and stunts” and was standing by his parked bike, while the two other bikers who were part of the collision could have been the participants.

The incident occurred when the participants mistook an ambulance van’s siren for a police patrol vehicle’s siren and watching them, the three boys attempted to scamper away on their bikes causing a commotion.

Gurav’s friend, Tushar Pagi, (18), was away to attend nature’s call thereby escaping the accident. “ Gurav had parked his bike since Tushar had to attend to nature’s call by when, Zafar Shaikh (19), who was driving a KTM, lost balance and rammed his two-wheeler against it,” said Bandra police station’s senior police inspector, Pandit Nivrutti Thackeray. “Shaikh’s bike toppled in the air after the collision and caught fire. Yet, again, a third bike, driven by Akash Rajput (20), rammed into Shaikh’s bike,” said Mr Thackeray. Shaikh, is in ICU at a Byculla hospital, while Rajput, is being treated at a hospital in Khar.

However, Shaikh’s brother Zakir, while speaking to The Asian Age, denied the police’s allegations against his brother and said that Shaikh was riding his bike at the spot but was not part of the race. “My brother had gone to reclamation, but he was not racing there. My brother was riding his bike when the RC-393 and Pulsar 220 were both performing wheelies,” Zakir said.

According to the police, the bike accident occurred on the northbound stretch of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. Mr Thackeray said, “We have booked Zafar Shaikh under IPC sections 304(a), 279 and 338 related to offences including causing death by negligence, rash driving and causing grievous hurt by act endangering life, respectively”. Asked about measures taken by the police against unauthorised bike races involving stunts being held at the stretch the accident occurred, Mr Thackeray said that the police undertake regular patrolling there but the bikers flee at the sight of them.

Mr Thackeray said, “There have been races at different parts of the sea link, like the Iron Bridge, and Reclamation road, but this was the first accident reported in the northbound stretch.”

Bhabha Hospital doctors informed this newspaper that Abhijeet was declared dead when he was brought to the hospital because of severe head injuries, while Akash had a severed leg injury and Zafar sustained a leg fracture and minor head injuries.

Gurav’s sister, Shraddha, told The Asian Age, “Abhijeet was supposed to go for a job interview today... He was involved in a bike accident a year ago, where he lost his girlfriend. He was trying to move on with his life, and start afresh only to meet with death in the same way.”