Ashwajit Gaikwad, who has been accused of mowing down his 26-year-old girlfriend in Maharashtra's Thane, has rejected all the allegations made by the woman, Priya Singh and termed the entire incident an attempt to "extort money", as per media reports.
What did Gaikwad say?
Refuting all the allegations, Gaikwad, the president of Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJYM), Thane division, told the police that he and Priya were just "friends".
"Whatever has been portrayed is untrue. She (Priya Singh) is just a friend of mine," sources quoted him as saying.
"She came in a drunken condition to a hotel where I was involved in a family function and forced me to talk to her. When I refused, she started abusing me. She also assaulted my friends when they tried to intervene in the matter. When my driver, Shelke, started my car so that she would step aside, she fell. The accident was not intentional," he said.
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Gaikwad said, "This is nothing, but a way to extort money from me. I have also given her money in the past and I have all the records".
What did the girl say?
On the contrary, as per media reports, when asked about the incident, the victim Priya Singh said, "I had a four-and-a-half-year relationship with my boyfriend. We were completely in love with each other. I did not know earlier that he was married. Later, when I came to know he told me that they (his wife & him) were not together anymore, they had separated. He said that he wanted to marry me. I was staying with him for a long time. When I went to meet him that night, he was with his wife. I was in shock when I went to talk to him, he got aggressive. We had a fight. Three bones in my right leg are broken, it has been operated on. From my left shoulder to my hips I've deep injuries...I cannot move my body. Four days ago I went to file an FIR, the day all this happened. But no action was taken. Today, when I posted on the social media, the police have supported me today..."
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Singh was rushed to a private hospital with grievous injuries after Gaikwad allegedly tried to mow her down with his car near a hotel in Thane on December 11.
What did the police say?
"The incident took place around 4.30 am on Monday near a hotel on Ghodbunder Road, where the woman had gone to meet Gaikwad. An argument broke out between the two. Later, when the victim collected her belongings from his car and started leaving, the one who was driving the vehicle tried to mow her down, due to which she fell down and suffered serious injuries," a police official said.
The victim later put out several social media posts to give information about the incident, the police said.
She is undergoing treatment at a hospital at present, they said, adding that Gaikwad is the son of a senior bureaucrat.
Following the incident, a case was registered against him and two others under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 279 (rash driving), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and others of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
