BHOPAL: A female software engineer, Shampa Pathak (Pandey), working with IT major Infosys in Madhya Pradesh’s commercial capital Indore, was crushed to death by a speeding car driven by the young son of an electrical engineer in a posh residential society late on Wednesday night.
Hours after the incident, the father-son duo, Kuldeep Chaudhary and his son Mohit Chaudhary (18), were arrested by Lasudiya police and booked for murder.
The incident occurred at Shiv Vatika Samriddhi Enclave under the Lasudiya police station area of Indore at around 10.30 pm, when a noisy brawl broke out between Kuldeep Chaudhary (a lead electrical engineer in a private company), his 18-year-old son Mohit, and residents of the society over the alleged commercial use of their penthouse through the Airbnb app.
Angered over the penthouse being frequently rented out for short stays to outsiders, including foreign nationals, particularly young men and women, residents of the private residential society shut down the power supply to the penthouse.
Miffed by this, the father-son duo shut down the power supply of the entire society, following which the argument escalated into a noisy brawl between them and other residents of the enclave.
When the father and son attempted to leave the enclave premises in a huff, residents tried to prevent them from leaving.
At that point, 18-year-old Mohit sped the Swift Dzire car through the crowd, running over the Infosys software engineer Shampa Pathak Pandey. Another woman was also injured by the car, but is stated to be out of danger.
With severe head injuries, the Infosys software engineer was rushed to Bombay Hospital, where she died due to excessive internal bleeding.
The family of four, reportedly hailing from Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, comprising Saurabh Pandey, Shampa Pathak Pandey and their two sons, Shresth (10) and Shreyans (7), had been living in Indore for the past three to four years.
The Pandey family, which earlier lived in Scheme 114, had purchased a flat in the Shiv Vatika Samriddhi Enclave multi storeyed apartment society and had shifted there on March 13.
The deceased software engineer’s husband, Saurabh, said, “After hearing noise from downstairs, we came down from our flat to see what had actually happened. Suddenly, the brawl intensified and the penthouse owner’s young son, despite being stopped by residents, sped the car, first hitting a female standing near it and later running over Shampa. Had he stopped the car, Shampa would’ve survived.”
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP Indore Zone II) Kumar Prateek, both the accused, including Kuldeep Chaudhary and his son Mohit (who had recently turned 18), were arrested within a few hours of the incident and have been booked by Lasudiya police for murder.
The entire brawl, which led to the incident, stemmed from longstanding opposition by residents to the use of the penthouse, owned by Chaudhary, via the Airbnb app for short stays by outsiders, including young male and female foreign nationals, who often arrived late at night and in the early morning hours, compromising the safety and privacy of the enclosed campus.