Sea link accident: Court refuses bail to speeding Creta driver

MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate court in Dadar has rejected the bail plea of Irfan Abdul Rahim Bilakiya, the driver of the speeding SUV that crashed into three vehicles, including an ambulance and a Mercedes parked on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) in the early hours on October 5, killing five and injuring eight persons.

The accident took place at 2.53am, exactly 18 minutes after a Maruti Suzuki Swift crashed into the barricade on the southbound side of the BWSL (towards Worli) following a tyre burst and the owner of a Maruti Suzuki Baleno stopped to help four stranded occupants of the Swift.

The BWSL staff, noticing the parked vehicles, assumed that an accident had taken place and sent an ambulance as well as a tow-away vehicle to the site. Meanwhile, doctor duo Dr Ankush Tinha (37) and Dr Ashwini Nair (28), both officers of the Indian Navy, also stopped their Mercedes just ahead of the Swift, assuming that medical help was needed.

Bilakiya’s speeding Creta came from behind and crashed into the vehicles, resulting in the death of five persons – the ambulance driver and four BSWL toll staff, and injuring eight persons, including the doctors. Forty-year-old Bilakiya was arrested later in the day, and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, under section 304 (2) of the IPC. He applied to the magistrate court for bail, claiming that the accident was a result of system failure and the speed of his car at the time was well within permissible limits.

Metropolitan magistrate Suhas Bhosale, however, found no substance in Bilakiya’s contention that the accident was a result of system failure, saying he was the fourth car to reach the spot. As regards the speed of the vehicle, the court said that had the accused not been at high speed, he could have controlled the vehicle.

PTI Irfan Abdul Rahim Bilakiya