Cab driver who knocked down ex-Intel India head says he dozed off

The driver of the cab that fatally knocked down former Intel India country head Avtar Saini in Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai, has told the police that he lost control over the vehicle as he dozed off because he was driving all night, an official said on Friday.

The police have registered a case against the driver, Rishikesh Khade (23) following the incident that occurred around 5.50 am on Wednesday on the Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai's Nerul area.

The speeding cab hit Saini while he was cycling.

The cab hit Saini's bicycle from behind and Khade then tried to escape from the spot with the bicycle's frame wedged under the front wheels of the cab.

Saini's companions rushed him to a hospital where he was declared dead on arrival, the police said.

"During his interrogation, Khade told the police that he dozed off as he was driving all night, due to which he lost control over the cab that knocked down Saini's bicycle," an official of NRI police station said.

Khade was booked under various Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, including 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by doing an act rashly or negligently so as to endanger human life) and 304-A (causing death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide), and provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.

"But the accused has not been arrested so far as the maximum imprisonment for sections applied against him is below seven years," the police official said.

Saini, a resident of suburban Chembur in Mumbai, was credited with working on the Intel 386 and 486 microprocessors.

He also went on to lead the design of the company's Pentium processor.

The police said they are waiting for Saini's relatives to claim his body as they reside abroad and are on their way to India for his last rites.