Dental intern, who was mauled by car, passes away

Mumbai: A dental intern of the civic-run Nair college, Dipali Lahamate (22),  died on Thursday after getting hit by a car that was being driven allegedly by a female driver at high speed near the Taraporewala aquarium on Saturday.

On Thursday night, she had been shifted from the privately-run Bhatia Hospital to the state-run J.J hospital for specialised treatment.

The Marine Drive police, which had arrested the accused driver Shikha Zaveri (36) after which she got bail, added an additional section, section 304 (a) of the IPC that pertains to causing death by negligence, after Lahamate’s death. The police will approach the court on Saturday to seek her re-arrest.

A passer-by Yezdi Driver (43), who chased the accused after the incident filed the complaint about the accident.  

Senior police inspector of Marine Drive Police Station Vilas Gangawane said, “Since Zaveri had already sought bail, we are going to approach the court to re-arrest her. We have already added a section 304(a) after the victim succumbed to her injuries.”

Lahamate’s batchmates had earlier begun a campaign on social media seeking punishment for the accused. Her family had volunteered for organ donation as Lahamate had taken a pledge of donation when alive, said her relatives

Lahamate suffered from grievous injuries on her head and upper body as the impact threw her over the car’s windshield and then to the other side of the road. The medical superintendent Dr Sanjay Surase said , “Her condition was extremely critical. She has suffe redpolytrauma and a brain stem injury, which was grave.”

Dr Surase further said , “The clinical cause of death is multiple traumatic injuries,.”  When asked about the organ donation which Lahamate had promised to do, Dr Surase said, “A CT scan showed that there was hardly any blood supply to the brain. Doctors weretrying to stabilize her vitals. She had multiple injuries and her vital parameters were not stable for organ donation.”