PUNE: A 45-year-old man was killed after an SUV, belonging to Maharashtra's Shiv Sena minister Tanaji Sawant, hit his two-wheeler in Solapur district on Monday, police said.
The incident took place around 8.30 am on a state highway intersection near Shelgaon Hole village, some 220 km from here, an official from Barshi police station said.
Sawant, an MLC and state water conservation minister, was not in the SUV (sports utility vehicle) at the time of the accident, he said, adding that its occupants comprised driver Anuradh Surwase (28) and one more person. "The victim, identified as Shyam Hole, was trying to go to the other side of the road on his motorcycle when he was hit by the SUV. He died on the spot," the official said.
"Minister Sawant was not in the car. His driver and another occupant were heading towards a college in Barshi owned by Sawant," he said. Driver Surwase was later arrested and booked under Indian Penal Code Section 304-A (causing death by negligence), the official.
After the accident, some angry locals attacked the car and damaged it, he said, adding that heavy police security was deployed on the highway. Barshi police station's inspector Bhagwant Vitthal Munde told PTI that Surwase did not run away from the spot.