Sweety Kumari accident: How red Audi, smart mechanic, letter 'U', helped Greater Noida police track down accused

The Greater Noida police had been grappling with a paucity of clues in the Sweety Kumari accident case for over two weeks. However, their persistence, coupled with a stroke of luck, enabled them to track down the white Santro car that had pushed Kumari to the brink of death and her family to abject poverty. The accused has been identified as Gulab Singh, a contractor in Greater Noida, who claims to have forgotten what transpired on the night of December 31.

Kumari and her two friends were out on December 31, trying to find bricks for a long-planned bonfire. A speeding white Santro changed their lives forever. The car hit the trio and fled. While her two friends escaped with relatively non-serious injuries, Kumari suffered severe head trauma.

Her family, unable to foot the exponentially rising medical bills, asked the civil society on social media to step up and save the life of the talented B-tech student. The Noida Police, moved by the plight of the woman and her family, doled out Rs 10 lakh for her treatment.

The Noida-Greater Noida police forces, meanwhile, had another problem at their hands. They had no clues as to who was driving the car or where the car was. They checked the CCTV camera installed at a school and found three cars in the vicinity at the time of the hit-and-run -- a red Audi, a white Santro and a Baleno. The Baleno driver had helped them take the woman to the hospital.

The police knew that it was the same Santro that hit Sweety Kumari. However, they couldn't zero in on the registration plate of the vehicle. They, however, could track down the Audi driver who remembered that the Santro's registration number began with 'U'. With this little piece of information, the police narrowed down the search to all the white Santros with a Greater Noida registration number.

The police knew from experience that the car would have been damaged in the accident. They started grilling local mechanics about any white Santro car that had come for repairs. One mechanic told them that he had repaired a car with broken windshield. He also remembered the number of the vehicle because it was very unusual and easy to memorise. 

The number was UP16 AB 2700. They found the car belonged to Singh.

The Times of India reported that the police arrested Singh on Sunday. He reportedly told them that he was so drunk on December 31 that he didn't remember how he got home. 

He reportedly told the mechanic, "Whatever happened, happened. You just repair the windshield of the car".

Sweety Kumari had to undergo several surgeries in the head. She is now recuperating in the hospital.