Photo Courtesy: Saket Todi
It all started with the rumors of Arnab Goswami having been caught speeding on the sea-link. The news anchor, who was actually trying to be a Good Samaritan was initially accused of breaking the law. In reality, he was the man who called the police officials to report the antics of the speed junkie creating a nuisance. There, however, is no or little clarity about what happened in the interim or later.
Curious to figure out as to where exactly Goswami spotted the accused, and how the police managed to track down the speeding car so quickly, Motoroids contacted S. Jaykumar, Deputy Commissioner Of Police, Zone-III to get a better view of the entire episode and this is what we learnt.
Photo courtesy Nikhil Rastogi
The most interesting aspect of the entire episode is that accused didn’t just do a single run of the sea-link. In a bid to quench his hankering for a shot of adrenaline he decided to make several trips up and down the elevated road and sea face in the Lamborghini Huracan. The driver of the Lamborghini, Samvit Ramesh Tara (39), a Juhu based businessman, was intercepted later at the sea face after receiving a complaint call from Goswami. Moreover, according to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Tara was not carrying a driving license at the time of the incident.
The red Lamborghini Huracan seen in the images is the Test Drive Vehicle of Lamborghini Mumbai. There are conflicting views about the driver and the Lamborghini. While some say that the accused, Tara, already owns a Lamborghini Huracan and test car was loaned to him as a substitute for his car which is currently in the workshops. Others say that he took the vehicle out for a test drive as a prospective customer. We were not able to contact Samvit Tara to hear his side of the story.
Jayakumar said that the police has a video footage of the incident as evidence. Police will analyse the video to determine the speed of the vehicle. The prescribed 50km/h speed limit on the sea-link is another debatable topic, and wonder how many drivers would be apprehended every-day if every vehicle’s speed was monitors. We’ll keep that debate for another day though.
Based on the complaint filed by Goswami, Tara was booked for rash and negligent driving. The penalty for the offence (fine or jail or both) will be decided by the court. The car, worth Rs. 3.43 crores (Ex-showroom Delhi), was released on the same day and the driver was also bailed after a few hours.
Much has been made of this incident. While negligent and rash driving can never be endorsed, we think that supercar owners are victimized in some cases because of their car’s visual presence and loudness. We believe that the law should be the same for everyone. The old, negligent man his rickety old 800 should be as accountable for speeding as the aware boy racer who did it deliberately for the kicks. What do you think?