Nearly three weeks after the incident, the Goregaon police have managed to arrest the driver of an SUV, which had knocked down a 45-year-old woman and fled from the spot in Goregaon (West) early morning of December 8.
A watchman of a nearby Mall had given the police a four digit number, which he said had been handed over to him by the driver of an autorickshaw which was behind the SUV when the accident took place. With this lone clue, the police were able to trace the SUV and its driver.
According to Goregaon police, the accused, Tejbahadur Giri (27), is the chauffeur of a Santa Cruz resident. On December 8, the victim, Rajmati Jain, was on her way to buy milk when the accident took place around 6:15pm on SV Road in Goregaon (W). The SUV rammed into Jain so hard that she was thrown to about 20 feet away. The driver however did not stop the vehicle.
When the police reached the spot, the watchman of a nearby Mall handed over to them the four digits of the registration number of the vehicle. "We just had four digits (8815) that was given to us by the watchman, who claimed a rickshaw driver who was just behind the SUV had noted it down," said Sunil Wadke, senior police inspector of Goregaon police station. Wadke added: "We had also acquired the CCTV footage of the incident, but in it too, the number plate was not clear."
"We got in touch with RTOs of Mumbai and Thane and got details of all SUVs which had registration number '8815'. Later we got in touch with owners of all these vehicles and zeroed in on residents in Santa Cruz," said Sr PI Wadke.
He added: "The owner of the car told us he had sent his Innova, through his driver, to his brother's place in Jogeshwari as the latter wanted to visit a temple. However, when the driver reached Jogeshwari early on December 8, his brother had cancelled the plan and the driver returned to Santa Cruz."
According to the police, Giri, while heading towards Western Express Highway from the Link Road on his way back, swerved to avoid hitting an auto that had suddenly appeared in front of his vehicle, and in the process rammed into Jain.
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