Mihir with his father Rajesh Shah.
Pradeep and Kaveri Nakhwa, a couple who sold fish for a living, set out early on Sunday morning to buy their stock from Sassoon Dock. With their supplies loaded onto their scooter, they began their journey back home—a routine they had followed countless times before. Little did they know, this would be their last ride together.
While they were headed to their Koliwada residence, a speeding BMW hit their scooter from behind. The impact threw Pradeep to the road while Kaveri was dragged along. In a desperate attempt to save his wife, Pradeep chased the speeding car for half a kilometre, but lost sight of her. He immediately sought help from the police, who told him later that Kaveri’s lifeless body had been discovered near the Bandra-Worli sea-link.
“I ran behind the car for half a kilometre, but could not find her. I was crying, screaming, but he did not stop. If he had stopped for a second, nothing would have happened,” Nakhwa told NDTV.
“My child is crying for mother. Where do I get her?” he said, fighting back tears, about the couple’s daughter.
Nakhwa accused the government of protecting Mihir Shah, the 24-year-old son of a Shiv Sena leader from the Eknath Shinde camp, who was reportedly driving the car. He partied for hours with friends before allegedly ramming the two-wheeler at 5.30 am on Sunday.
Rajesh Shah, Mihir’s father and deputy leader of the Shiv Sena in Palghar district, was arrested after the crash only to be released on bail soon after. Mihir Shah was finally arrested today. A total of 12 people, including Shah’s mother and two sisters, have been taken into custody.
The CCTV footage of the incident shows that after the collision, Kaveri was dragged for 1.5 kilometre by the BMW before it stopped. Police say that Shah then swapped seats with his driver Rajrishi Bidawat, who was with him in the car, pulled the woman’s body out from under the car, and dumped it on the road.
In a chilling turn of events, the driver reportedly reversed the car to run over her body once more before speeding away out of the CCTV’s range, according to the police.
Bidawat has been sent to police custody till Thursday.
Nakhwa said that Shah is shielded because he is an “influential man’s son”. “I am a poor man. No one cares about the poor,” he said.
He slammed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the home minister of the state, wondering whether the minister’s silence was due to Shah’s political connections.
“What is the home minister doing? Are you silent because the accused’s father is the Chief Minister’s man?”
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde termed the incident “unfortunate” and assured that the law would take its course. Everyone is equal before law, the CM stressed.
“No one, whether rich, influential, or the offspring of bureaucrats or ministers, affiliated with any party, will have immunity as long as I am the Chief Minister of the State. I have zero tolerance for injustice,” Shinde said in a post on X.
The case against Mihir Shah has been filed under the new criminal code, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, invoking charges including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rash driving, and destruction of evidence.
