Jyoti Mete, wife of Shiv Sangram Party leader Vinayak Mete who was killed in a car crash, on Monday claimed he had died two hours before being shifted to a hospital in Navi Mumbai and demanded an inquiry into the “time gap”.
Jyoti Mete said something was being hidden regarding the actual time of the accident that occurred on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Sunday morning and the time of death as told by officials.
Mete, 52, was killed when his car headed towards Mumbai hit a truck from behind on the expressway near Madap tunnel in Raigad district. He was travelling to Mumbai from his home district Beed to attend a meeting called by the state government regarding the Maratha quota.
A former MLC, he was cremated on Monday afternoon with state honours.
Jyoti Mete said the exact cause behind her husband’s death and the time will be revealed in the postmortem report.
“Being a doctor I understood that something was wrong the moment I saw his body at the hospital in Kamothe. As per medical science, a person’s face does not become white instantly after his death. Mete saheb’s face was white when I saw his body. Blood was coming out from his nose and ears,” she told a news channel.
Jyoti Mete said she told her brother that the accident didn’t occur 45 minutes back as told by officials on Sunday.
“The accident and the death might have occurred at least two hours back (when she saw the body). Something was being hidden from us. The time of the accident being told and the actual time of death should be investigated,” she said, adding that she had reached the hospital within 45 minutes after receiving the information about the incident.
Jyoti Mete said social issues were more important for her husband than politics.
“I think it was the social cause that might have killed him,” she added.
On Sunday, a doctor who checked on Vinayak Mete at the MGM Hospital told reporters that the Shiv Sangram Party leader had died before he was brought to the hospital.
“He was brought in at 6.20 am. He had no pulse or blood pressure, and his pupils were not moving. He died before being brought to the hospital. We even performed an ECG (electrocardiogram), but it showed a flat line (indicating no heart movement),” the doctor had said.
Mete’s driver Eknath Kadam had told the police he did not receive any help for almost an hour after the accident and vehicles plying on the expressway didn’t stop.
Kadam suffered minor injuries in the incident while Mete’s police bodyguard was seriously injured.
The highway police, however, had denied the claim of the driver. They said police reached the spot within seven minutes after receiving information about the accident.
On Sunday, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Arvind Sawant demanded a thorough probe into Mete’s death in the road accident.
“Despite the recent political developments in Maharashtra, Mete never uttered a single word. Then why was he suddenly called for a meeting (in Mumbai)? Who made a call to him?” he asked.
Dilip Patil and Abasaheb Patil, who represent various Maratha groups that support the demand for quota for the community, also raised doubts over Mete suddenly being called to Mumbai for a meeting.
