E-Paper
Matka Chowk mishap: Auto driver who claimed Mohali dentist’s life arrested
A CCTV video of the early morning collision had shown Sonu’s auto ploughing into the two cyclists after veering into the left side of the road
The auto-rickshaw driver, who had struck two cyclists near Matka Chowk on September 11, leaving one of them dead, has been re-arrested by the police.
The accused, Sonu, 22, of Mansa Devi Complex, Panchkula, was previously booked under Sections 279 (rash driving) and 337 (act so rash or negligent as to endanger human life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Sector 17 police station. He was arrested right after the accident, but released on bail.
Following the death of one of the cyclists, Dr Lakhwinder Singh, 48, a Mohali-based dentist, on Friday, police added Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC, a non-bailable offence, to the FIR, and arrested Sonu again.
According to police, he will be produced before a duty magistrate on Monday.
A CCTV video of the early morning collision had shown Sonu’s auto ploughing into the two cyclists after veering into the left side of the road. The auto-rickshaw had overturned and fallen over Dr Lakhwinder. Eight passengers in the auto-rickshaw had also suffered injuries.
Dr Lakhwinder and his friend, Satyajeet Kundra, 38, a businessman, were returning home to Mohali from their morning bicycle trip to Sukhna Lake around 5.45 am at the time of the accident.
Probe officials had earlier revealed that the driver of the overloaded vehicle had failed to apply brakes, resulting in the mishap.
The auto-rickshaw passengers were rushed to GMSH, Sector 16 for treatment, while Lakhwinder was shifted to a private hospital in Mohali, where he succumbed to his injuries on Friday.
He leaves behind his wife, who is a government doctor, and two daughters, one of them an engineering student and another a Class 10 student.
