Cyrus Mistry car crash: FIR filed against Anahita Pandole for rash driving

Palghar Police on Saturday filed a first information report (FIR) against Mumbai-based gynaecologist Anahita Pandole for rash and negligent driving that led to billionaire Cyrus Mistry's death.

The police case was registered after recording the statement of Anahita's husband Darius Pandole, who survived the car crash, and was discharged from a Mumbai hospital in late October.

Anahita Pandole, a gynaecologist at Breach Candy Hospital, was behind the wheel when the accident happened. As per Palghar police, she is still in the ICU, undergoing treatment.

The FIR, filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Motor Vehicles Act, comes two months after the death of the former Tata Sons chairman.

Darius's brother Jehangir Pandole, a director in the London Office of KPMG's Global Strategy Group, also died in the accident. He was sitting beside Mistry in the backseat of the ill-fated Mercedes GLC 220 D.

While Mistry and Jehangir died soon after the car rammed into a divider in Palghar district of Maharashtra, the other two were injured.

Mistry and the Pandoles had gone to Udwada, where Parsis have their main fire temple. The Shapoorji Pallonji Group had completed the renovation of the Iranshah Atash Behram fire temple last year.

Darius Pandole on Tuesday informed the police that his wife Anahita was driving the Mercedes-Benz in the third lane and was unable to move into the second lane because it narrowed at the Surya river bridge in Maharashtra's Palghar district. A car which was ahead of their vehicle went to the second lane from the third and Anahita also tried to follow the same.

The statement was recorded by the authorities of the Kasa police station in Palghar, under whose jurisdiction the accident took place on September 4. His statement was reportedly recorded at his south Mumbai residence for one-and-a-half hours, during which he gave details of the accident.

The Mistry family is the single largest shareholder in Tata Sons with an 18.4% stake. Cyrus Mistry was identified as Ratan Tata's successor in 2011. He assumed the top job at Bombay House in 2013. However, the relationship between the two soured after Mistry took certain decisions to shutter some non-remunerative businesses and not honour certain commitments made by Tata in the interest of turning around the struggling businesses of the group.

Darius, who served as a non-executive independent director on the board of Tata Global Beverages, too resigned in December 2016, soon after Mistry was removed from the chairmanship of Tata Sons. Pandole had voted against the resolution for Mistry's ouster.

Before he joined the Tata group, Mistry had relinquished day-to-day operational control of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, his family business that has interests ranging from engineering and construction to real estate, in favour of his brother Shapoor Mistry.

Mistry's attempt to regain the lost job fell flat earlier this year when the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions filed by Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd and Sterling Investments Pvt Ltd to review the apex court's March 2021 judgment, which upheld Mistry's removal as chairman of Tata Sons.