Case against Anand Mahindra in Kanpur after man alleges ‘false assurances’ on safety of car led to his son’s death

The complaint lodged by Rajesh Mishra says he bought a Black Mahindra Scorpio SUV on December 2, 2020, for Rs 17.39 lakh and that he bought it after seeing advertisements and posts on social media by Anand Mahindra.

It says Mishra gifted it to his only son after keeping in mind the advertisements and claims made on safety were kept in mind while buying it. “On January 14, 2022, my son Dr Apoorv was returning to Kanpur from Lucknow in the car. Along with Apoorv, his friends were also in the car and all of them were wearing their seat belts (mentioned in the police report). Because of fog, the car hit the divider and then toppled several times and my son died at the spot,” said the complaint.

It further said that he would have never bought the car had it not been for assurances given by the dealership and the company in advertisements. It also says that despite the seat belt being worn, the airbags in the car didn’t open, resulting in his son’s death and that the company had cheated him by giving false assurances. It also said that Mishra found through sources that there were no airbags in the car.

The case has been lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 287 (Negligent conduct with respect to machinery), 304-A (causing death by negligence), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 102-B (criminal intimidation).

SHO, Raipurwa, Aman Singh, said the investigation in the case has begun, and further action would be taken based on the findings. “The case was lodged after a court order for it. We have started probing the case and will share more soon,” said Singh.

Meanwhile, in a statement on September 26, a company spokesperson said, “We would hence like to categorically reconfirm that the Scorpio S9 variant manufactured in 2020 did have airbags. We have investigated and there was no malfunction of the airbags. It was a rollover case which would not deploy the frontal airbags. A detailed technical investigation was completed by our teams in October 2022. The matter is currently sub judice and we are committed to cooperating with the authorities for any further investigation that is required. We completely empathise with the family and offer our deepest condolences to them in their grief.”