Shivam Mishra, son of tobacco tycoon KK Mishra, has been granted bail this afternoon, just hours after he was arrested this morning in the Kanpur Lamborghini car crash.
Mishra was arrested four days after the Rs 10-crore Lamborghini Revuelto rammed an autorickshaw, a motorcycle and later crashed into a pole, leaving six people injured.
Even as a video showed Mishra’s bouncers pulling him out of the driver’s seat after the same and witnesses corroborating that he was driving the car, his lawyer has repeatedly claimed that his client was not driving at the time. He also claimed that Shivam Mishra’s driver, Mohan, was driving the car.
On Wednesday, Mohan turned up at a Kanpur court claiming he and not Mishra had been driving the car. He said he lost control of the vehicle after Shivam Mishra suffered a sudden seizure moments before the accident. Mishra’s family had earlier claimed he suffers from epilepsy.
“I was driving the car when the accident happened. Suddenly, he had a seizure and fell on me… I got scared and was trying to hold him with one hand. The car hit a three-wheeler…” Mohan claimed, adding an auto locking system prevented him from exiting the vehicle immediately after the crash, prompting him to shift (inside a cramped cabin) Mishra to the driver’s seat.
Earlier, victims and locals alleged that the police were initially “going soft” on Mishra due to his family’s influence. An FIR was first registered against “unknown persons”; Shivam Mishra’s name was only added hours later.
On Monday, the officer-in-charge of the Gwaltoli police station, Santosh Kumar Gaur, was sent to the police line due to prima facie evidence of negligence. “He failed to follow due procedure after the accident. The lapse amounts to negligence, and immediate action has been taken,” said Commissioner of Police Raghubir Lal.
The VIP Road in Kanpur’s Gwaltoli area was crowded with pedestrians and vehicles at approximately 3:15 pm yon Monday when the Italian luxury sports car first hit an autorickshaw and then crashed into a stationary motorcycle, flinging its rider nearly 10 feet into the air. Witnesses recounted that the car mounted the motorcycle’s front wheel and dragged it some distance before hitting an electric pole and coming to a halt.
Sonu Tripathi, one of the injured, told reporters that he and his cousin were standing near their motorcycle when the car struck them. He stated that his cousin fell while two other people were flung onto the footpath.
Videos showed angry locals gathering at the spot immediately after the crash. Witnesses alleged that private bouncers accompanying the accused tried to push back the crowd, further escalating tensions. The black Lamborghini – bearing a Delhi registration plate – has been seized and sent for a mechanical inspection.