IT professional gets two days police custody for ‘drunk’ driving causing pub staffer’s death

A court in Pune on Monday sent an IT professional to police custody for two days for his involvement in a case in which he drove his Volkswagen car under the the influence of alcohol and allegedly crushed a valet attendant to death at the Toit Pub and Restaurant in Pune’s upscale Kalyani Nagar area on Sunday afternoon.

Police have identified the deceased valet attendant as Satendra Moti Mandal (30), a native of Bihar who was residing at Adarsh Nagar in Wadgaonsheri area of Pune.

Prakash alias Peter Menezes, the operations manager of Toit, lodged an FIR at the Yerwada police station on Sunday night. Police arrested the accused—Pratap alias Pratapsing Bharatrao Daingade (49), a native of Nerul in Navi Mumbai currently residing in Pune’s Dhanori area—under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Motor Vehciles Act pertaining to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and drunk driving.
Assistant police inspector Mahesh Lamkhade, who is investigating the case, said Daingade was produced before a court on Monday, which sent him to police custody for two days.
Police said Daingade is an IT professional working at the Commerzone IT Park in Pune. He consumed liquor at some place and from there, came to the Toit hotel in a car around 2pm on Sunday.
According to the FIR, after consuming more alcohol, he allegedly left his table and started moving here and there in the hotel. The hotel staff told him that he was heavily drunk and advised him to go home. They took him to the parking lot, where his car was parked. The staffers asked him to go home by a private cab or that they could arrange a driver for him as he was under the influence of alcohol. However, he refused their advice and got into his car. While driving his car out of the hotel, he lost control and pressed on the accelerator, that let the car hit the counter in the valet parking area.