Janhavi Gadkar case: Mumbai police seeks footage from Marine Drive and pub

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police has sought CCTV camera footage from Marine Drive and a south Mumbai pub to investigate the movements of lawyer Janhavi Gadkar in the hours before she allegedly rammed her car into a taxi, killing two persons, during the early hours of Tuesday. “We are investigating to find out where she went after leaving Hotel Marine Plaza. We will be looking at CCTV footage from the Marine Drive, the pub and also question the staff there,” said Sangram Singh Nishandar, deputy commissioner of police.

EThad reported on Wednesday that Gadkar, a senior vice-president (legal) at Reliance Industries, was at a upmarket south Mumbai pub, The Irish House, with a senior executive of RIL. She was seen leaving around 1 am Tuesday while the police was alerted about the accident on the Eastern Express Freeway around 1:20 am. The senior RIL official is not suspected of being involved in the accident.

In her statement to police, Gadkar has said that she was at Hotel Marine Plaza having dinner and alcohol on Monday evening and felt the place after 10 PM. She then spent over two hours sitting in her car at Marine Drive before she started for her Chembur home. Police officers told ET that they have recorded her statement as well as the statement of the person who was with her at hotel Marine Plaza. “We have taken her statement and she claims that she spent two hours at Hotel Marine Plaza.

But we will be conducting an independent investigation to establish where she was that evening,” Dilip Raut, senior police inspector of RCF police station, told ET.

On Wednesday, Gadkar’s police custody was extended till June 12. She was driving her Audi Q3 on the wrong side of the road, allegedly in an inebriated state, and hit a taxi that was carrying a family from Bhendi Bazaar. While Gadkar was pulled out of her crushed car; the passengers in the taxi Samim Sabuwala (50) and the taxi driver Sayed Husain (45) succumbed to their injuries. Sabuwala was out for a family dinner to celebrate the success of the youngest of his three children, Numan Sabuwala, in SSC exams.