MUMBAI: A 17-year-old Dubai resident on a visit to Mumbai allegedly hit a scooter with a rental SUV in Chandivli on Sunday night, killing a 15-year-old boy on the pillion, and fled. He was tracked down within hours, apprehended, produced before Juvenile Justice Board and sent to a correctional home till March 27.Sakinaka police said the driver’s family attempted to mislead them by claiming that he had left for Mira Road after the accident, but he was found hiding in a relative’s house in Chandivli itself. Charges were also invoked against a friend, Mohammed Anas Moharramalli Khan (22), an MBBS student who had rented the car for the day, and a notice served to him. “A probe is on to find out his exact role. The next course of action will then be decided,” said a Sakinaka police officer. The victim, Pratik Mane, was rushed to Rajawadi hospital with severe head injuries, where he was declared dead on arrival. The driver arrived in Mumbai last week to celebrate Eid with family members in Sakinaka, said DCP (zone 10) Datta Nalawade. It was unclear where he was headed with the car. Pratik’s brother, Sumit Mane (22), told police that the two had set off from their Chandivli home on a scooter to make some purchases for a wedding in their village later this month. When they reached a housing society on Nahar Amrit Shakti Road a little away from home, an SUV emerged from the gate and rammed into them. The driver sped away. CCTV cameras at the site captured only a partial licence plate. A police team supervised by Nalawade and led by SI Mohan Kotlawar tracked down the car rental agency, got Khan’s details through the documents he submitted there, and traced the route the car took to get to the driver. Pratik’s father, Subhash, is an auto driver and his mother works as a domestic help.Mandeep Singh Makkar, member of Chandivli Citizens Welfare Association, said this was the second such accident on the road and both involved juvenile drivers. He said in Sept 2023, a senior citizen suffered severe spinal fractures after a 14-year-old student hit him with a car. “Due to lack of substantial legal action in the past, no deterrent was established for guardians who permit minors to drive. This recurring negligence has now resulted in the tragic death of a teen. We demand strict legal consequences for car owners who enable this behaviour; otherwise, the safety of every citizen remains at stake.”
