The 24-year-old accused in the Mumbai BMW hit-and-run case, Mihir Shah, along with two of his friends had 12 large pegs of whiskey -- about four peg each -- before hitting a scooter and killing a woman, excise officials said.
In an inebriated state, Mihir and his friends left from the bar at around 1:30 am on Sunday and a few hours later, at around 5 am, the accident took place in the Worli area, Times of India reported.
A Mumbai police official also said on Thursday that Mihir Shah was inebriated. "Our probe has found he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. The crime scene involving the car hitting the two wheeler and then dragging the victim was recreated in order to get more details," news agency PTI quoted the official as saying.
The 45-year-old victim, Kaveri Nakhwa, was on a scooter with her husband when Mihir crashed his BMW into them. Mihir Shah was arrested on Tuesday, July 9, and was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Mumbai court on Thursday, July 11.
WHY WAS HARD LIQUOR SERVED TO MIHIR?
The license of the Juhu bar Vice Global Tapas, where the accused and his friends were drinking, has already been suspended by the state excise department. Notably, the bar had served hard liquor to Mihir, who is underage for consuming alcohol yet. The legal age for drinking hard liquor in Mumbai is 25.
The bar's management, however, alleged that Mihir had shown them identity proof that put his age at 27 years, which is why they allowed him to enter, NDTV reported. The other friends with him were over 30 years of age.
Reportedly, the excise department also came across other alleged irregularities with the bar which was listed as Don Giovanni Restaurant, Jobel Hospitalities Pvt Ltd.
The discrepancies include selling liquor to non-drinking permit holders in non-permitted areas, non-submission of licensed premises for inspection, mixing the permitted liquor area with non-permitted area of the restaurant, lack of liquor transport license for a certain stock among others.
Additionally, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation demolished the illegal portion of the Vice Global Tapas bar on Wednesday.
During the Pune Porsche crash as well, authorities had closed around 60 bars across the region for five to 10 days as punishment for functioning beyond closure timings and serving liquor to underage people.
Mihir and his family driver, Rajrishi Bidawat confessed to their roles in the incident to the Mumbai Police on Thursday. They were also taken to the scene of the crime to re-create the night of the accident.
The son of Rajesh Shah who was sacked from his post of deputy leader in Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, was arrested from Virar on Tuesday following the mobile phone network of one his friends being switched on for just 15 minutes.
