Sixth owner of a 2.5-year-old i20 car arrested for running over a traffic cop twice for halting him

The driver, Amandeep, turned out to be the sixth owner of the offending vehicle, a Hyundai i20, that was registered in Haryana in January 2018, Deepak Purohit, deputy commissioner of police (west district) said.

A 22-year-old taxi driver has been arrested for twice running over a traffic police assistant sub-inspector at a picket in West Delhi’s Raghubir Nagar a week ago, police said on Monday.

The alleged crime happened on August 17 evening when Singh and his colleagues were checking vehicles at a picket in Raghubir Nagar. (File photo)

The driver, Amandeep, turned out to be the sixth owner of the offending vehicle, a Hyundai i20, that was registered in Haryana in January 2018, Deepak Purohit, deputy commissioner of police (west district) said.

“Since then, the car had been sold six times but was registered only once when it was newly purchased. After that, owners kept changing, but no one got the car’s registration details changed,” the DCP said.

That was the reason why Amandeep allegedly made a desperate attempt to get away from police checking, leaving ASI Mahabir Singh battling for his life for the first five days after the accident.

“The ASI remains hospitalised, but his condition has improved and he is likely to survive,” said the DCP.

The multiple times the car changed hands was also the reason why it took the police a lot of work to identify and arrest the offending driver, the officer said.

The alleged crime happened on August 17 evening when Singh and his colleagues were checking vehicles at a picket in Raghubir Nagar. “When Singh signalled this car to stop, the driver tried to escape by taking a U-turn just before the picket. When the ASI tried to stop the car, the driver hit him with the vehicle. He again rammed the policeman a second time, this time crushing him under the wheels,” said the DCP.

Singh’s colleagues were only able to note that it was an i20 car registered in Haryana and the last four digits were 1664.

“We sent a team to Haryana to get details of all i20 cars whose numbers ended with 1664. In the meantime, we found CCTV footage of the offending car and got the complete registration number,” said the officer.

Over the next few days, the police went about tracing owners of the car one by one. One owner led to another. Another team visited service centres to see when was the last time the car was serviced or repaired -- an exercise they hoped would help them get the contact number of the last owner.

The police finally got to know that Amandeep was the last known owner and that he was on a visit to his in-laws’ home in Noida. His phone location pinned him near the crime spot around the time of the incident, police said.

“For three days, we couldn’t spot him in that house in Noida, but we waited around in plain clothes. Finally, he arrived at the house in the same car in the early hours of Saturday and we nabbed him,” the DCP said.

Amandeep, who has been identified by police only by his first name, has been booked for attempt to murder and could be jailed for up to 10 years, if convicted.