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Former model held in hit-and-run case in Guwahati remanded to police custody
The driving licence of the accused who was involved in another accident four years ago has been cancelled. The incident, as well as the bail granted to Baruah allegedly due to flimsy charges levelled against her, led to a public outcry on social media forcing CM Himanta Biswa Sarma to state that appropriate action would be initiated.
A former model arrested for injuring nine people with her vehicle in an accident in Guwahati last week was on Thursday remanded to police custody by a city court.
Rejecting her bail application, the court of chief judicial magistrate Abhijeet Kumar Baruah remanded Rajkanya Baruah, a former model and Femina Miss India finalist, to a day’s police custody. Guwahati police had sought five days police custody of the former model.
The court also directed the police to cancel the driving license of Baruah, who had knocked down nine persons with her car on the early hours of October 2 during Covid-19 curfew.
She was arrested on Wednesday from a private hospital in Guwahati in connection with a new case after a medical board ruled out “any serious or acute condition that warranted her to be admitted into a hospital”.
“There are two cases that have been registered against Baruah now. She managed to get bail in the first case registered after the accident. We have added two new charges under sections 308 and 326 of IPC to that case,” informed Subhrajyoti Bora, DCP (East), Guwahati.
The new charges are for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and voluntarily throwing or attempting to throw acid. Earlier, the police had slapped charges of causing injury due to rash and negligent driving.
“We have also registered a fresh case under sections 294, 325, 394, 427 and 506 of IPC against Baruah with regards to an alleged attack on one more person who is at present admitted in hospital. Both cases have been lodged at the Dispur police station in Guwahati,” said Bora.
The new charges are for uttering obscene words in public place, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, voluntarily causing hurt, causing damage as part of mischief and criminal intimidation.
The 29-year-old who reportedly works on cyber security issues and runs a luxury flower boutique was admitted in semi-intensive care unit (ICU) of the private hospital on Tuesday after getting summons from the police to join investigation.
“After she was summoned, her mother wrote to police saying she is not well and can’t join investigation for two weeks. That’s why we requested Guwahati Medical College Hospital to probe her illness as we were also concerned about her well-being and it could affect the case as well,” Guwahati commissioner of police Harmeet Singh said on Wednesday.
“We will look at all aspects of the case and will also ask the private hospital under what basis was she hospitalized. Our officers are conducting investigations,” he added.
Eight of the injured persons were on their way to carry out some road repair works in connection with Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu’s visit to the city when the auto-van carrying them was hit by the car driven by Baruah.
The accident took place during night curfew imposed due to Covid-19 and the former model was reportedly inebriated at that time. Both legs of another person, who was reportedly hit by Baruah’s car after hitting the vehicle carrying the labourers, had to be amputated.
The incident as well as the bail granted to Baruah allegedly due to flimsy charges labelled against her led to a public outcry on social media forcing Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to state that appropriate action would be initiated.
Two police sub-inspectors from Dispur police station were ‘closed’ to the police reserve for allegedly slapping bailable charges on her and not adding provisions of Disaster Management Act in the charges for violating Covid-19 curfew.
As per police, this is not the first time Baruah has come under police probe. In 2017, she had hit a former BJP MLA’s son with her car following a quarrel and a year later another case was lodged against her for hitting a policeman posted outside a bar. Both incidents took place in Guwahati.
