IANS/Jaipur

Veteran film actor and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Hema Malini, injured in a car crash in Rajasthan that killed a child, remained in hospital yesterday even as her driver was arrested for rash driving.
Doctors at the Fortis Escorts Hospital said Hema Malini, 66, was stable and on liquid diet after undergoing a two-hour surgery late Thursday.
The accident near Dausa, over 50km from Jaipur, occurred after Hema Malini’s car hit another vehicle coming from the opposite direction. A two-year-old child died and four others were injured, including the parents of the dead girl.
Hema Malini -- one of Bollywood’s best known actors -- “is fine and conscious”, said Prateem Tamboli of the Fortis Hospital.
Earlier, Hema Malini’s car driver, Mahesh Thakur, was arrested on charges of rash driving and causing death by negligence besides other offences, police said.
“We have arrested the driver, a resident of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh,” a police officer at Dausa said.
At the SMS Hospital in Jaipur, the distraught father of the girl who died was inconsolable while the injured mother kept asking for her, not knowing that her daughter was dead.
Relatives of the injured claimed that although the family was seriously hurt neither the actor nor her aides bothered to ask about their well-being. A doctor at the government-run SMS Hospital, however, said the condition of the injured was “normal.”
Fortis Hospital said Hema Malini, after being brought in around 9.35pm, underwent detailed investigations, including X-Ray and CT scan.
Her daughter Esha Deol and son-in-law Bharat Takhtani has reached the hospital. Her younger daughter Ahana, who gave birth to a boy in June, did not visit her mother.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje called on Hema Malini.
Medical and Health Minister Rajendra Rathore visited the family injured in the crash and told the hospital to provide them free treatment.
Hema Malini, who made her acting debut in 1968, subsequently came to be known as Bollywood’s “Dream Girl” for her beauty.
Her acting career has spanned over four decades. She was nominated 11 times for the Filmfare Best Actress Award and won once in 1973”.
Hema Malini, also a Bharatanatyam dancer-choreographer, was presented with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour, in 2000. In the same year she was honoured with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.