Nearly 10 days after his SUV hit an auto-rickshaw in Indirapuram killing four persons, the owner of the Audi Q7, Dr. Manish Rawat, appeared before the police on Sunday to record his statement.
The neurosurgeon at Safdarjung Hospital said he went to the police station on his own and narrated the incident as it happened on the fateful day.
Dr. Rawat told The Hindu that he was not driving the SUV, but admitted that he was present inside the car at the time of the accident. “I was sitting next to the driver. I guess, in a bid to overtake the auto-rickshaw (whose driver and passengers were killed in the accident), the driver lost control and rammed the vehicle. After I gained consciousness, I realised the driver had fled. I thought people might beat me up, so I also left,” he said.
‘Knew driver as Ishaq’
When asked about the controversy over the identity of his driver, who appeared in court as “Ishaq Ahmad from Hafizganj, Bareilly”, an address later traced to a truck driver by the same name, Dr. Rawat claimed that he knew the driver by that name only.
“The man, who appeared in the court as the driver of my car had introduced himself as Ishaq Ahmad when he met me one-and-a-half years ago in Bareilly. I had verified his driving licence with the RTO (regional transport office) in Bareilly and only after that I hired him. He was not working regularly for me. He drove my car on and off. At that time I had a Honda Accord. I bought the Audi in April 2016.
“When I came to Delhi in June 2016, he contacted me. Since I knew him from Bareilly, I did not verify his identity in Delhi. It is the job of the police to find out if he is the real Ishaq or fake,” he added.
The Hindu shared the photos of the truck driver and the man (wearing a cap) who claimed to be his driver Ishaq Ahmad, with Dr. Rawat for identification, but he could not give a clear answer. “Can’t say, he is a wearing cap,” he said.
‘Mental trauma’
Dr. Rawat recorded his statement after the Ghaziabad Police issued a notice to him under Section 160 of CrPC.
When asked where he was all this while, he said, “I wasn’t underground. The police issued a notice to me on January 30. I replied to them the same day. On January 30, the driver appeared in the court and the next day, he got bail. I was in mental trauma after the accident, so I was living with my family at home. Later I came to know that police wanted to record my statement. My mobile phone had been damaged in the accident, so I contacted the police.”
Four persons -- auto driver Sanjeev (25), Yajuvendra Singh Sengar (40), his cousin Vishal Singh (25), and their family friend Rinku Yadav (38) -- were killed when the Audi Q7 rammed the auto at Indirapuram on a narrow road that runs parallel to the Hindon canal.
Shoddy probe
The Ghaziabad Police’s shoddy investigation in the case came to the fore when it initially gave a clean chit to the SUV owner and considered the person, who appeared in the court as Ishaq Ahmad and claimed that he was driving the SUV at the time of accident, the accused. The police were even going to file a chargesheet soon. They did not try to verify the details of the “driver” and presented a report before the court, on the basis of which the man was granted bail.
