Published on: Sept 11, 2025 07:06 am IST
According to the police, while Gupta was leaving Lalbaug, he didn’t notice the sleeping children and ran over them with his vehicle. The duo were taken to KEM hospital where the girl died while her brother, was treated for injuries to his head, chest, and stomach
MUMBAI: The police have arrested a man for the hit-and-run case on Friday at Lalbaug where a 2-year-old girl was killed and her 11-year-old brother was seriously injured. The Kalachowki police said that the accused ran over the children with his six-seater car and fled the area.
According to the police, the accused, Santosh Nanu Gupta, 37, is a wholesale retailer of vegetables in Ghatkopar. The police said that Gupta had borrowed his friend’s Maruti Suzuki to drive down to Lalbaug to pay his respects to the revered Lalbaugcha Raja Ganapati idol. He parked his vehicle near the Lalbaugcha Raja gate which was a no entry road.
At 4am on Friday, Suman Vajandar, 27, a waste collector originally from Karnataka, was collecting scraps in the area. Vanjandar lived with her two children, Chanda Vanjandar and Shailu Vanjandar, on the footpaths of Lalbaug. “She had told her children to sleep on one side of the road since vehicles were banned in the area,” said the police.
According to the police, while Gupta was leaving Lalbaug, he didn’t notice the sleeping children and ran over them with his vehicle. The duo were taken to KEM hospital where Chanda died while Shailu Prabhu Vajandar, was treated for injuries to his head, chest, and stomach.
“There were no CCTV cameras at the gate, but we traced the vehicle number and later reached the owner of the vehicle who told us he had given the vehicle to Gupta,” said a police officer.
Gupta was booked under sections 106 (causing death by negligence), 125 (E) (act endangering human life or personal safety of others) and 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The police said that after they arrested him, he was granted bail.