Investigations into a hit-and-run incident that left four people dead on January 28 took a turn on Sunday, when two witnesses named in the suspected driver’s bail plea went absconding. Senior police officers said the possibility that the two were related to the owner of the car involved in the accident, Dr Manish Rawat, cannot be ruled out.
The police have also issued a notice to Rawat to join the investigation within 24 hours, failing which they will take legal action against him.
The accident took place on the Hindon Canal Road, barely a kilometre away from Delhi. Documents recovered from the car identified its owner as Manish Rawat, Associate Professor (Neurology) at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.
Rawat went missing after the incident and a man, who called himself Ishaq Ahmed, surrendered in the court last week, claiming that he was driving the Audi on the night of the incident. Later, however, Ahmed changed his statement and said he was driving a truck in Gujarat at the time of the accident.
Claiming innocence, Ahmed said some impostor might have appeared before the magistrate. Then two men, Brijesh Singh and Suraj Tiwari, residents of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad and Bareilly, respectively, signed as witnesses on Ahmed’s bail papers.
Strangely, all the people involved in the case so far — Brijesh Singh, Suraj Tiwari, Ishaq Ahmed, and Manish Rawat — hail from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly.
“The two men who signed as witnesses on Ahmed’s bail papers are absconding. We are trying to figure out the relation between the two absconding men and Dr Rawat,” said Salman Taj, Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad.
Meanwhile on Sunday, a DNA team visited Brijesh Singh’s house in Indirapuram through the address provided on the bail paper, only to find it locked. His phone also remained switched off. No one in the building had any idea about Singh and many were doubtful that anyone even lived in that flat.
“We have seen people entering the house sometimes, but mostly it is locked. The last time we saw someone coming was last month. We don’t know who Brijesh is,” said Shilesh Kapoor, a neighbour.
The mobile phone of the second witness, Tiwari, also remained switched off. The local police found his house locked as well. The Ghaziabad police have now issued a notice to Rawat to join the probe. They said if the doctor doesn’t join the probe within 24 hours, they will approach the court to get a non-bailable warrant against him. “We are not in direct contact with Rawat. He has been missing since the accident but his father has been talking to us,” a senior officer said.
