Vadodara crash accused Rakshit Chaurasia drove under influence of drugs, reveals forensic report

Vadodara car crash accused Rakshit Chaurasiya

Law student Rakshit Churasia, who crashed a speeding car into eight people in Gujarat's Vadodara, was driving under the influence of marijuana, revealed forensic report.

The 23-year-old from Prayagraj crashed his friend's Volkswagen Virtus sedan he was driving into three vehicles, leading to the death of a woman (Hemali Patel). Rakshit, a fourth-year law student at MS University, was heard shouting 'another round' and 'om namah shivay' after the accident, in a video footage that had gone viral. He was dressed in a black T-shirt.

The accident occurred near Amrapali Chaar Rasta in Karelibag, a busy intersection in Vadodara city. Rakshit was arrested a day later and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rash driving, and reckless endangerment, along with Motor Vehicles Act violations.  He is currently lodged at the Vadodara Central Jail

As per the primary report of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Gandhinagar, police said that the accused was not drunk at the time of the incident. He had, in fact, smoked marijuana, the report that tested the accused's blood sample revealed.

Along with Chaurasia, the blood samples of co-passenger Praanshu Chauhan and another friend who was in the car during the crash, Suresh Bharwad, have also tested positive for drugs.

"We received the result of the three blood samples today, which showed positive for drugs. Chaurasiya was high on marijuana (ganja) while driving. They were driving the car after smoking ganja. We have arrested Rakshit Chaurasia's co-passenger and the third accused will be arrested soon," Panna Momaya, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 4, said on Friday.

The FSL report, which arrived on Thursday, detected the presence of ganja in the bloodstream of all three persons.

According to the DCP, a separate case has also been filed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. "We filed a separate case under the NDPS Act against all three and added a section for driving under the influence of drugs under the Motor Vehicles Act in the original FIR against Chaurasiya," he added.

Momaya said that the police are a detailed report from the car manufacturer, Volkswagen, to ascertain the speed of the car at the time of the accident as well as other technical details that led to the crash.