Pune: A woman drove a cabby for 2km along Sangamwadi-Shahdawal Dargah Road on the bonnet of her car after he tried to stop her vehicle following an accident on Jan 17 afternoon. The cabby, Ram Laxman Rathod (34), sustained a fracture in his hand, but he did not report the incident to police till video clips of the incident got circulated on social media platforms. A police team traced Rathod and recorded his statement on Monday.On Tuesday, police arrested the woman (45), a Baner resident who works for an NGO, on the charges of attempt to commit culpable homicide and rash and negligent driving. She was produced before a city court, which ordered her release on bail. Rathod got himself treated for his fractured hand, police said.“The incident occurred around 3pm on Saturday (Jan 17) when the woman was driving her car from Yerawada to Shivajinagar. On Sangamwadi Road, her car first hit a motorcycle from behind, resulting in the bike rider, his wife and child falling on the road,” senior inspector Ravindra Kadam from the Laxminagar police station said.Kadam said at this moment, Rathod was driving his cab behind the woman’s car and the latter put her vehicle in reverse gear in an attempt to drive past the fallen couple. “In the process, her car hit Rathod’s cab and he started chasing her car to stop her. He managed to intercept and slow down the woman and after parking his cab alongside the road, he stood in front of the car. At this moment, the woman suddenly stepped on the accelerator and Rathod jumped on the bonnet to save himself from being hit,” he said.The senior inspector said Rathod held onto the bonnet while pleading with her to stop but the woman instead drove ahead at a speed of 50/60kmph for almost 2km, putting his life and that of others on the road at risk. “Some motorcycle riders started chasing the speeding car and also shot videos of the incident. After a lot of shouting and signalling, they managed to get the woman to stop her car and Rathod fell from the bonnet. He was taken to a hospital in Shivajinagar.” Police got to know about the incident on Monday after videos on social media platforms reached them, Kadam said. “Our team immediately got into the act of tracing the cab driver and reached the hospital where he was treated. After studying the car’s registration number, we tracked down the woman. The couple and their child, who were first hit by the woman’s car, sustained minor injuries in the incident,” he said.
