A three-year-old daughter and her mother were allegedly crushed to death by a car in Maharashtra's Latur on Sunday, September 29. According to the Indian Express report, a family travelling on a bike was chased by a four-wheeler with five men inside it for about 5 kilometres and ran over them following a road rage incident.
Father Sadique Shaikh and his six-year-old son survived with serious injuries, narrated the incident. According to the Sadique was riding the bike at the time of the incident, he told that the men in the car who mowed down his daughter and wife, were also used religious slurs and said that “Muslims need to be taught a lesson” before they hit them down.
Also Read | Mumbai Road Rage: Drunk Bike Rider Harasses Woman Creative Director in Versova (Watch Video).
According to the report, five accused were booked for murder by the Latur Police after intervention from activists and lawyers. Latur SP Somay Mundhe told The Indian Express that the police have registered a case against five men with murder charges. He said that it appeared to be a road rage case as of now.
According to the complaint, the incident took place when Sadique, along with his wife Iqra (24), their six-year-old son Ahad, and three-year-old daughter Nadia, were returning after visiting his sister in Ausa, 20 kilometres from Latur district in Maharashtra.
The police received a complaint at around 8 pm on September 29 about a car abruptly swerving in front of their motorcycle on the outskirts of Ausa. According to Sadique, an argument erupted between intoxicated men in the car and him while riding. Later, a car overtook them by knocking them down near Budhada village.
The road rage resulted in the death of Iqra and Nadia, while Shaikh and Ahad were shifted to a nearby hospital in Latur for treatment. Initially, the family thought it was a road accident, but after Sadique regained consciousness, he narrated the incident to his elder brother, saying that they had been targeted for being a Muslim, reported the Indian Express.
However, the complaint does not mention any alleged religious slurs. The five accused, Digambhar Pandole, Krishna Wagh, Basvaraj Dhotre, Manoj Mane, and Mudame, were apprehended by local residents shortly after the incident.
video of one of the accused at the hospital shows him admitting that they deliberately ran over the family.
The family alleged that initially, the police refused to file serious charges and were attempting to classify the incident as just an ordinary accident. A video of one of the accused at the hospital shows him admitting that they deliberately ran over the family. “We had a tiff with the man, and after he left, our driver, Digambar Pandole, followed and ran him over intentionally,” the accused narrated in a video shared by fact-checker Mohammed Zubair in his X post.