Medical tests conducted on taxi driver Mangru Verma — the accused in the case involving a mishap on Eastern Freeway on Saturday where six people died — concluded that he was not under the influence of alcohol when driving his black-and-yellow cab.
The Dongri police had booked him under sections related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and negligent driving on Saturday and it will not add the section related to drunken driving now.
Verma, who had sustained injuries in the accident, and is being treated at the state-run J.J. Hospital will get arrested on his release from there, according to the police.
ACP Vinod Sawant informed this newspaper that Verma is stable and he will be arrested the moment doctors declare him fit. Police sources revealed that officers suspect he will be discharged from hospital in the next 48 to 72 hours.
The black-and-yellow Santro taxicab, which Verma (35) was driving, rammed into a divider and then a pole near Dongri. The taxi, carrying nine members of a family, was headed to Mumbadevi temple in south Mumbai. Verma’s daughter Aasha (12), son Rajkumar (12), wife Anara (30), brother-in-law Harikesh Verma and his wife Rajshri and daughter Ragini lost their lives in the accident.
Verma, Vinay and Ravi sustained injuries, but the latter were discharged after receiving first aid.
According to a police officer from Dongri police station, the investigation revealed that Verma had violated the traffic rules as nine people were in the cab while only four are allowed.
Recalling that Harkesh had cautioned him from squeezing nine persons into one taxi, Verma, lying at his hospital bed, had said, “He had told me that we should take two taxis. However, I told him that there wouldn’t be much traffic on Saturday morning. I have been driving taxi in the city for 17-18 years now and I never over-speed or violate traffic rules. I can’t remember how the accident happened. All I can remember is waking up in the hospital bed.”
