‘Traces of alcohol won’t be there now’: BMW crash victim’s family on Mihir Shah’s arrest

Hours after the main accused in the Mumbai BMW hit-and-run case, Mihir Shah, was arrested on Tuesday, the family of the victim raised apprehensions that traces of alcohol won’t appear in the accused’s blood because of the delay in arrest.

Pradeep Nakhwa, the husband of the victim Kaveri Nakhwa, said he doesn’t have the resources to fight a legal case against the accused, who is the son of a Shiv Sena leader.

Nakhwa said why Mihir Shah hid for three days if he hadn’t been drinking before the accident. He claimed the accused broke the number plate of the luxury vehicle to throw the police off his trail.

“He was arrested after 3 days, what does this mean? If he wasn’t alcoholic, if he hadn’t taken drugs, then why did he go into hiding?… Why was he absconding for three days? You abandoned the vehicle on the way and broke the number plate before running away…now after 3 days, there won’t be any traces of alcohol in his body and he will have 20 lawyers with him,” he said.

Nakhwa and his wife were going to buy fish from the market for their fish-selling business when the BMW car hit their scooter from behind. While Nakhwa fell on the road, his wife was dragged on for over 1500 meters.

She later died in the hospital.

“We are poor, who will give justice to us? Today he went to jail, the day after tomorrow he will be produced in court and he will get bail. The case will go on and on and everything will cool down. What will we do? From where will we arrange money and a lawyer? These party leaders will do nothing – this is the son of their leader only. He is a big person who can buy anyone…who is there on our side?” he added.

He said no top leaders visited them.

“Did Fadnavis or Shinde come to our house, to know what happened? Did Ajit Pawar come? They all have become blind in greed for power…they come to meet the public only to beg for votes and then they forget,” he said,

Mihir had been evading arrest since Sunday morning. He was arrested from Mumbai’s Virar area. His mother and two sisters were also questioned by the Mumbai police.

Meanwhile, the excise authorities have sealed a bar in Mumbai’s Juhu where the accused and his friends consumed alcohol hours before the accident.