Avtar Saini, former head of software giant Intel, died on Thursday, February 29, after he was knocked down by a speeding cab while he was out cycling in Navi Mumbai. According to the police, 68-year-old Saini was cycling along the Palm Beach Road of Nerul along with a group of cycling enthusiasts, when a cab speeding on the road rammed into him from behind with full force, knocking him and injuring him, and tried to flee. The tragedy took place around 5:50 am near the Nerul Junction and the Seawoods Estate signal. Doctors at DY Patil Hospital declared him dead.
His co-cyclists told the police that after the cab hit him, Avtar Saini was flung away on the road and sustained severe injuries that proved fatal. Soon after the accident, cab driver Hrishikesh Khade attempted to flee the spot and drove the cab for nearly one km, but failed to go further as Saini’s cycle had got stuck under the car’s front wheels.
He was caught by other motorists nearby and handed over to the NRI Coastal Police Station, which lodged an FIR and slapped with various charges, including rash driving, stringent culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Avtar Saini was an acclaimed chip designer and credited with the development of Intel 386 and 486 microprocessors and led to the design of the Pentium processor. A member of the Chembur Amateur Cycling Group for a decade, Avtar Saini’s wife passed away three years ago and he is survived by a son and a daughter, who live in the US. His former colleagues and Intel India President Gokul V Subramaniam expressed his condolences on social media.
Avtar Saini joins the growing list of prominent persons or billionaires who perished in tragic accidents in recent times. Wagh Bakri chief Parag Desai was reportedly attacked by strays in Ahmedabad, a tech firm CEO Rajalakshmi Vijay was killed while cycling at Worli in Mumbai, Vistex CEO Sanjay Shah killed in Hyderabad, while tycoon Cyrus Mistry was killed in a road crash in Palghar, Maharashtra.