'Accused Mowed Down Deceased Woman In Utter Disregard To Humanity': Bombay HC Denies Relief To Mihir Shah, Another In Worli Hit & Run Case

The Bombay High Court while refusing to grant any relief to Mihir Shah, the prime accused in the infamous Worli Hit-n-Run Case, voiced its concern over the need to prioritise the rights' of the victims and also to strike a balance between the rights of the victim and the accused as well.

A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande in its November 25 order noted the "utter disregard to humanity" in which the petitioners-accused including Shah "mowed" down the deceased woman. 

It is necessary to strike a balance between the right of the accused, which undisputedly are well recognized and settled and are found to be embedded in the criminal justice system through various authoritative pronouncements, the bench noted.

"But we are of the opinion that at some point of time, right of the victim must also be prioritized and this is a case where we feel that acting in utter derogation of respect to human life, the petitioners, mowed down, the wife of the complainant and in utter disregard to any humanitarian conduct, ruthlessly the vehicle was driven with her body being entangled between the bonnet and the wheels," the order, made available today, reads.

Having "no regard to human life", the petitioners are alleged to have fled away from the spot and not only this, the petitioner Mihir Shah went absconding and was required to be arrested after two days, the bench noted further.

"While we balance the rights of the accused which have been weighed on the parameters of life and liberty as enshrined in the Constitution, we are of the firm view that the rights of the victim will also have to be tested on the same parameters of Article 21, which guarantees right to life and liberty and is equally applicable to the victim of the crime, before us," the bench made it clear.

The complaint alleged that the car which was driven by Shah had hit the vehicle on which the complainant and his wife were travelling, wherein she sustained serious injuries as she was "dragged ruthlessly despite having come under the wheels of the car" and instead of rendering any medical assistance she was dragged till T Junction on Worli Sea link, where she separated from the car and was found lying on the road in an injured condition.

In their 29-page judgment, the bench emphasised that for too long, the victims of crimes have been the forgotten persons in a criminal justice system.

"Crime is not a problem of the victim, since the victim did not create it. For considerable time, what the system offered to the victim was only sympathy, but with the introduction of discipline of victimology, the concept has gained momentum and found its place in the existing Code of Criminal Procedure," the court said in its order.

Finding no merit in the pleas moved by Shah as well as co-accused Rajrishi Bindawat praying for their release on the ground of illegal arrest as “grounds of arrest” were not communicated to them, the bench went on to dismiss the same. 

Background

Shah, is the son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's close aide, Rajesh Shah. He was arrested on July 9, two days after he dragged a woman while driving his BMW car, in an inebriated condition during the wee hours of July 7 in Mumbai's plush Worli area.

Previously, while the bench was hearing the arguments, it noted that in several cases, the accused get relief only on this technical ground and they are released from the custody of the police, which somehow hampers the probe. The judges had also expressed the need for 'balancing' the issue as not in every case, particularly in a serious offence, an accused can be released merely because the grounds of arrest were not communicated to him or her.

"We need to strike a balance....sometimes offence is very serious like in the instant case, the woman was dragged and then you (accused) filed away... What kind of citizen are you? You say your fundamental rights have been violated what about their (victim's) fundamental rights?" a visibly enraged Justice Dangre had observed.

During the hearing, Justice Dangre had also voiced concern over accused getting released on such technical grounds and thus had indicated that the instant case could be taken as a "test case" for the Supreme Court to finalise if accused, even in serious offences, could be released on such technical grounds.

"Let this be a test case...We will examine whether in such cases, the seriousness of the offence also needs to be considered or not. The fundamental rights of the victims too need to be taken into account," Justice Dangre had observed.

Case Details: Mihir Shah vs State of Maharashtra (Criminal Writ Petition 3533 of 2024)

Counsel for Rajrishi Bindawat: Advocates Niranjan Mundargi, Ujjawal Gandhi, Keral Mehta, Ashish Dubey, KR Shah, Ankita Bamboli, Parth Govilkar and Kinjal Desai 

Counsel for Mihir Shah: Advocates Rishi Bhuta, Neha Patil, Bhumika Khandelwal, Saakshi Jha, Prateek Dutta, Risha Rathod, Omer Farooq Khwaja, Vaishnavi Jhaveri and Bhavi Kapoor 

Counsel for State: Chief Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegavkar along with Additional Public Prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh and SS Kaushik 

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