Gurugram hit-and-run: Driver, cousin held in Raj, cops invoke attempt to murder

Police said CCTV and motorcycle footage showed Kalyan Bainsla chasing Shivani Chauhan before allegedly ramming her bike on Sunday.

The driver who allegedly rammed his car into a woman motorcyclist on Gurugram’s Golf Course Road on Sunday was arrested from Dausa in Rajasthan along with his cousin on Tuesday, police said, adding that attempt-to-murder charges were invoked after investigators concluded that the road-rage incident appeared to involve a deliberate attempt to hit the biker.

The accused was arrested with his cousin in Dausa after allegedly fleeing Palwal and switching off his phone to evade police tracking. (HT)

The suspects were identified as 33-year-old Kalyan Bainsla and his cousin, 34-year-old Lavnish, both residents of Chandhut in Palwal. Kalyan owns a gym and runs a real estate business in Palwal, police said.

They were arrested on Agra Road in Dausa while travelling in a car that was not involved in Sunday’s incident. Police said the sedan allegedly used in the crash was later recovered from Palwal.

Investigators said Kalyan attempted to escape from police custody while being brought back to Gurugram after asking to stop to urinate. He sustained injuries to his left forearm and head while fleeing and was briefly taken to a hospital, police said.

Sunday’s incident took place between 7.15am and 7.30am when Delhi resident Shivani Chauhan, alias Sia, was riding her motorcycle with a group of bikers. It came to light after she posted a video of the incident on social media, prompting Gurugram police to take suo motu cognisance.

Footage recorded by cameras mounted on Chauhan’s and her friends’ motorcycles showed a white Maruti Ciaz swerving towards her and hitting her motorcycle. Other clips show Chauhan asking the driver to maintain a safe distance. After the impact, she is thrown off the motorcycle and slides several metres along the road, while her bike skids for nearly 100 metres.

In an Instagram video, Chauhan described the incident and alleged that the driver “appeared to be drunk”. She said she had tried to maintain as much distance as possible from the car following an exchange of words.

On Monday, police registered an FIR at Sector 56 police station under sections 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 281 (rash driving) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and formed three teams to trace the driver.

After Bainsla’s arrest, DCP (East) Sandeep Kumar said CCTV footage and recordings from the motorcycles showed that he had chased Chauhan and deliberately rammed the car into her bike. “Thus, we invoked sections 109 (attempt to murder) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in the FIR on Tuesday against Bainsla and Lavnish,” he said.

Kumar said the decision to invoke attempt to murder charges was based on the suspected intention behind the incident rather than the extent of Chauhan’s injuries. “Even though the victim had not sustained any life-threatening injuries, looking at the intention to harm her fatally after chasing, it was decided that the attempted murder charges must be added,” he said.

Police also added sections 78 (stalking) and 79 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the BNS after Chauhan’s statement was recorded by a police team at her Delhi residence on Tuesday. “Looking at these developments, sections 78 and 79 of BNS were also added in the case,” Kumar said, adding that the victim had alleged that the suspects made obscene gestures and comments towards her.

Police said the two suspects would be produced before a court in Gurugram and sought two days’ remand for detailed interrogation.

Came to meet aunt in Sohna

Police said Kalyan was driving the Ciaz on Sunday, with Lavnish sitting beside him. Two other men, who hailed from Bihar and worked for Lavnish in Palwal, were travelling in the rear seat.

The group had come to Sohna on Saturday night to meet Lavnish’s aunt and was scheduled to return to Palwal on Sunday, investigators said.

“They left aunt’s home and decided to travel towards Delhi via the Golf Course Road when Kalyan spotted Shivani riding her motorcycle on the Golf Course Road and started chasing her and finally hit her after the road rage,” a police officer said.

The suspects immediately returned to Palwal after the incident, police said. Neither Kalyan nor Lavnish informed anyone about the crash.

DCP Kumar said Kalyan became nervous after footage of the crash, recorded by a camera mounted on Chauhan’s motorcycle, began circulating online and was subsequently carried by news channels. “He planned to project himself as the victim and gave interview to news channel as soon as he got to know that an FIR was registered against him in an attempt to counter the narrative set against him,” Kumar said.

He later switched off his mobile phone and fled Palwal with Lavnish in another car to avoid being tracked, police said.

A senior police officer said Kalyan first fled to Salasar and then to Mehandipur Balaji in Rajasthan. “He and Lavnish avoided staying in any hotel. Both spent the entire night in the car in Mehandipur Balaji. In the morning too, they kept changing location in the car while keeping their phones off to avoid tracking by police,” the officer said.

Investigators eventually traced the registration number of the car used by the suspects to flee Palwal. Using the registration details and CCTV footage, police tracked the duo to Dausa, where they were arrested on Tuesday.