Main accused in Mumbai BMW hit-and-run case Mihir Shah arrested; friend switched on phone for 15 mins

Mihir Shah, the prime accused in the Worli BMW hit-and-run case who was absconding for nearly three days, was finally arrested from Maharashtra state's Virar area on July 9, police said.

The police have taken him to the Worli Police Station for further questioning. So far, the police have taken 12 people into custody, including Mihir's mother and two sisters, who they believe, helped Mihir evade arrest for almost 72 hours. However, it is to be seen whether the cops list the three women as accused in the case.

Following the incident, the Mumbai Police made several teams to locate 24-year-old Mihir and a lookout circular was also issued to prevent him from escaping to another country. He was eventually tracked down to an apartment in Virar, some 65 kilometers from Mumbai, police said.

Congress leader Varsha Gaikwad showed up at the Worli Police Station soon after Mihir's arrest and told waiting reporters: “This is not a hit-and-run… this is a murder.”

The accident occurred in the wee hours of July 7 when a BMW, allegedly driven by Mihir in a drunken state, rammed into a two-wheeler killing 45-year-old Kaveri Nakhwa.

Kaveri was riding with her husband Pradeep on Annie Besant Road around 5:30 am when the luxury car rearended their scooter. She was dragged for over 1.5 km by the car, and was left severely injured. While her husband sustained minor injuries, Kaveri was declared dead at the hospital.

Police sources told Education Post that Mihir has admitted he was at the wheel of the car when the accident occurred but maintains he wasn't drunk at the time.

Mihir, a school dropout, is the son of Rajesh Shah, a Shiv Sena leader from Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's faction of the party.

Mihir fled the scene on the advice of his father, according to the police. A case has been registered against his father, Rajesh Shah, and the family driver, Rajrishi Rajendrasingh Bidawat for helping him flee.

While Rajesh Shah secured bail on July 8, the Dadar Metropolitan Magistrate court has sent Bidawat to police custody until July 11.

All the three accused, Mihir Shah, Rajesh Shah and Bidawat, have been charged under several provisions of the new criminal code of Bharat Nyay Sanhita (BNS). Rajesh was granted bail as he was not charged with culpable homicide.

The CCTV procured by police showed Mihir swapping seats with the driver after he hit the Nakhwas. He pulled the unconscious, but still alive, woman out from under the car and left her on the road in the Kala Nagar area before leaving the damaged vehicle with his driver and fleeing from the spot.

The incident got even more horrific as the driver then allegedly reversed the car to run over her body one more time before speeding off and out of the CCTV's view, the police said.

Bidawat was, therefore, “aware of his actions and helped the other accused,” the police told a court, clarifying the charge of culpable homicide against the driver.

After leaving his car with his driver, Mihir fled the scene in an autorickshaw and reached his girlfriend's residence in suburban Goregaon, from where they contacted Mihir's elder sister who arrived in Goregaon and took the two to her residence in Borivali, police said.

From Borivali, the Shah family ― Mihir, his mother Meena, sisters Kinjal and Pooja ― along with two friends left for a resort in Thane's Shahpur area in an Audi car. The police, meanwhile, learned the identity of one of the friends accompanying Mihir and tracked his number. But this number, too, was switched off.

Then late on July 8, Mihir and his friend left the Shahpur resort and reached Virar, where his friend turned on his mobile phone for just 15 minutes, enabling the Mumbai Police to track down their location.

The victim's husband, Pradeep, has demanded stringent punishment for the accused and said his wife could have been saved if the driver had stopped the car on time.

“After the collision, we fell on the bonnet and then fell on the ground. I fell on the side while my wife came under the wheel. I got up and asked the driver to stop, but he sped away with Kaveri on the bonnet,” Pradeep said, adding, “Is he a man or an animal. No one does this to an animal. My wife was screaming when the driver was dragging her. If he had not run away, my wife would have been alive.”

Pradeep believes the accused fled the scene of the accident and evaded arrest for almost three days so alcohol could not be traced in his blood.

“He (the accused) was arrested after three days. What does this mean? If he wasn't an alcoholic, if he hadn't taken drugs, then why did he go into hiding? Why was he absconding for three days?” a visibly emotional Pradeep told ANI. “Now, after three days there won't be any traces of alcohol in his body, and he will have 20 lawyers with him. We are poor, who will give us justice? Today he went to jail, 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 the 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 said.

Pradeep's daughter, Amruta, said she wanted Mihir to be hanged. “My mother should get justice. I want him (Mihir) to get the death penalty. She (my mother) was in a lot of pain. I saw her with my own eyes in the hospital,” she said.

Meanwhile, in yet another similar hit-and-run incident in Maharashtra, a 36-year-old woman was killed in Nashik when a speeding white-colored hatchback car hit her from the back and sped away on July 9.

The CCTV footage showed the woman, identified as Vaishali Shinde, being flung in the air and thrown some 20 meters away. She was rushed to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.

The police said they have detained two people for questioning.

Just two days earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde took to X (formerly Twitter) to say that he was “deeply alarmed” by the rise in the number of hit-and-run incidents in Maharashtra, and promised to implement “harsher penalties” for offenders.

“It is intolerable that the powerful and influential misuse their status to manipulate the system. Such miscarriages of justice will not be tolerated by my government,” he wrote while adding, “The lives of ordinary citizens are precious to us. I have directed the state police department to handle these cases with utmost seriousness and ensure justice is served. In addition, we are implementing stricter laws and harsher penalties for hit-and-run offenders.”

In May, a 17-year-old minor was allegedly driving his father's high-end Porsche car under the influence of alcohol when he rammed into a motorbike in Pune, killing two software engineers from Madhya Pradesh on the spot. The accused tried to speed away after the crash but was prevented from doing so by enraged onlookers.