Two alphabets help cops nail driver in W Delhi hit-and-run

NEW DELHI: The letters P and C on the sides of a green tempo that was loaded with bottle crates — these were the only two clues police had as teams fanned out across

NEW DELHI: The letters P and C on the sides of a green tempo that was loaded with bottle crates — these were the only two clues police had as teams fanned out across Subhash Nagar to identify the driver of the vehicle that knocked down a 35-year-old man on Wednesday.

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A CCTV footage that caught the incident went viral the next day (Thursday) as a total of 50 officers divided into six teams visited all markets across Subhash Nagar and Keshavpur Mandi, talking to shopkeepers about the tempo.

An investigating of ficer said that because the case had grabbed headlines, the officers involved in the case spoke to over 100 tempo owners.

Each team was asked to go to cold drink shops, milk shops and water shops in the area that use bottle crates. At 4pm, police got its first lead when a shopkeeper claimed to have spotted a similar tempo in the area.

“We got the address and reached driver Rajesh’s home. But Rajesh wasn’t home. He had left home in the morning and not returned on Thursday,” said an investigating officer.

Around 5.40am on Wednesday, Rajesh’s tempo had hit Mohammad Matibool ( 35) in front of Miraj cinemas in Subhash Nagar. The accident was caught on CCTV and went viral as no passerby had bothered to check on Matibool or rush him to a hospital. A man had stolen Matibool’s cell phone as lay at the side of the road, bleeding.

Rajesh, 25, whose blurred photograph was flashed on news channels all day, hid at a friend’s house watching television all day and following the news after the accident. He said that after hitting Matibool, he continued with his daily routine and distributed milk to his customers.

“He realised that he was in trouble when he saw the news on Wednesday night and saw his blurred video of fleeing the spot. Usually he parked his vehicle outside his Mahaveer Enclave house. But after the accident, he took his tempo to a relative’s house and parked it among other vehicles,” added the officer.

Joint commissioner of police (south west) Deependra Pathak said the police were now on the lookout for a rickshaw-puller who had stolen Matibool’s mobile phone .“We urge Delhities to provide immediate help to accident victims and save someone’s life. In the light of a Supreme Court directive, such Samaritans are not detained or forced to disclose their identity,” Pathak said.

Police said a 2009 standing order, issued by then police commissioner reiterates that “any person who brings an accident victim to a hospital or nursing home shall not be subjected to any harassment.” In 2013, another senior officer had noted the same in a circular distributed to all police stations in Delhi.