Car with traffic police logo in hit-and-run

The vehicle which rammed into five had the logo on its windshield, but it was later removed

MUMBAI: There is no questioning Mumbai traffic police’s zeal of curbing drunken driving on city streets.

But questions are bound to be raised as to why the traffic police logo was removed from the windshield of a Chevrolet Optra, which was involved in a hit-and-run accident at Ghatla village, Chembur, around 2 am on Sunday.

According to Chembur police, the car (Registration No. MH-43-A-2547), was coming from Govandi towards Chembur when it went out of control on NG Acharya Road near Ghatla village. It pummelled into five pedestrians, injuring one of them, a second year BCom student, seriously.

The driver fled with the car, but a kilometre down the road he rammed it into a lamp-post. Witnesses had by then alerted Chembur police station, and a patrolling van nabbed the driver from the spot where the car had crashed.

The driver, identified as Ashok Kahaar, 29, was booked for drunk and negligent driving. There was a traffic police logo on the car’s windshield when it was taken to the police station. But later in the day, it was found removed (see pictures).

Chembur police officers, asked about the owner of the vehicle, remained tight-lipped. Asked why the traffic police logo was removed, sub-inspector Narayan Jadhav, the investigating officer in the case, said, “The logo was removed for investigation purpose. Officials from the traffic branch came to check the car in the morning. There will
be an investigation to ascertain how the traffic police logo came to be on the car’s windshield.”