When a man from Alabama driving south on I-69 through Greene County passed up another southbound vehicle, he found out that vehicle was equipped with radar and the driver was Indiana State Police Master Trooper Eric Nash.     

Abhinav Mithilesh Gautam, 23, of Birmingham, Alabama, was pulled over in the afternoon of Monday, June 4, near mile marker 98 of I-69.

Nash was on duty in an unmarked car working roving patrol, traveling in the right-hand lane, when he saw a small vehicle traveling behind him in the left-hand lane. The vehicle was catching up to him and when it got closer, Nash activated the rear same-direction radar.

Trooper Nash reported the vehicle was traveling at 107 mph in a 70 mph zone. Nash tapped his brakes and hit the lights as the vehicle was passing him by.

Gautam’s vehicle was a rental car and Gautam had a valid learner’s permit issued in Alabama. There were two passengers in the car. The car had been rented in the name of the front seat passenger who had a valid driver’s license.

In the narrative for probable cause, Nash wrote that the driver told him he didn’t realize he was going that fast, didn’t mean to be going that fast, and he kept apologizing for going that fast.

Despite the apologies, Nash handed him a citation and gave him a court date – July 27.

In a case filed Thursday in Greene Superior Court, Gautam is facing a charge of reckless driving at a high speed that endangered safety, a Class C misdemeanor.