 "Jaipur BMW accident: Independent MLA's son sent to one-day police custody")
Siddharth Mehariya, the son of independent Rajasthan legislator arrested for allegedly mowing down three people from his BMW car, was on Sunday sent to one-day police custody.
Three people were killed and five others injured when a BMW car allegedly driven by Siddharth rammed into an auto rickshaw and a police PCR van near St Xavier's School in the city late on Friday night.
Deepak Chauhan, Siddharth's lawyer, said that the charges levied against his client were false and a person named Ramesh was responsible for the accident.
"The police had requested for three-day police custody. We have told the court that Siddharth was not driving the BMW. In fact, a person named Ramesh was driving it. After the accident, Ramesh ran away," Chauhan told the reporters.
The lawyer further said that Ramesh later on went to the police and said he was responsible for the accident.
"Even then the police did not arrest him. The most important aspect of this case is that the accident took place at around 1 a.m. and the police lodged an FIR twelve hours later. They have not given any reasonable explanation. This itself proves that they have filed a fake case against Siddharth," he added.
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The police alleged that 20-year-old Siddharth, son of Independent Rajasthan MLA Nandkishore Maharia, was driving the vehicle in an inebriated state.
The incident occurred at around 1.50 a.m. when Siddharth and his cousin Jayant (19) were heading to Jyoti Nagar in a BMW. The three victims were identified as Jethanand, Kailash and Vishnu.
Yesterday, Siddharth had cried foul, saying he was not driving the car and it was his driver who caused the accident.
Divulging the details about the incident, Siddharth said, "We went to have ice cream in the night. When we were returning, two drivers approached us with a very high speed. The driver of our car did not see the auto rickshaws as it was raining heavily and there was no street light on the road as well," he said.
"When the auto was about to approach then only our driver saw it and ultimately there was a small collision which overturned the auto rickshaw. The driver, who is a little inexperienced, got panicked and seeing the auto-rickshaw, he pressed on the accelerator instead of the breaks. And thereon, it collided with the PCR van which was standing 50 metres from there," he added.
He also refused to the allegations levelled by the police, saying wherever a big car and youngsters are involved, there is doubt of alcohol consumption.
"But it is nothing like that. The doctor gave me clean chit in the hospital. We will get in touch with the families of the deceased and we are ready to help them," he said.