Garage owner held for mowing down man with client's car

New Delhi: A 23-year-old garage owner was arrested for allegedly mowing down a man in south Delhi's Greater Kailash area with a client's car he had taken for repair, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, Shubham Jain, who owns a garage and deals in spare parts of vintage luxury cars, had taken a red BMW from Chandigarh's Ajay Parihat for repair, they said.

The red BMW was registered in the name of Ravi Kumar, who is Parihat's elder brother, they said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Benita Jaiker said that during interrogation, Jain told police that on the intervening night of July 9 and 10, he along with his elder brother Vaibhav Jain and a friend had gone to Nehru Place in the BMW car.

While returning from Nehru Place at about 2.30 am on July 10, he hit a person near the plastic pots Market on Lajpat Rai Road but was unable to stop his car due to very high speed.

Later, he stopped the car near Blue Bells School for a moment but due to fear, fled from the spot, the DCP said.

The deceased, Ranjan Kumar, 46, a resident of Savitri Nagar in Malviya Nagar, worked as a cashier at a pub in East of Kailash, police said.

The speeding car hit Kumar from the front while he was walking on the road, and threw him on the pavement, police said.

They said they received information about the hit-and-run incident at 5.09 am at Greater Kailash Police Station.

Kumar was lying unconscious on the pavement for a long time. A passerby, who spotted him, informed the police, officials said.

He seemed to have been hit by a car, as broken parts of a car bumper were found on the spot, the senior police officer had said Tuesday.

Kumar was rushed to the AIIMS where he was declared brought dead.

A case under sections 279 (rash driving) and 304A (causing death due to negligence) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Greater Kailash 1 Police Station and an investigation was initiated, Jaiker said.

A special team was formed which examined over 200 CCTV cameras installed within five km from the restaurant where the victim worked in East of Kailash, to Safdarjung Hospital Ring road, to find out the route offending vehicle might have taken.

Finally, it was revealed that a red colour BMW car was involved in this accident, she said.

"When details of the vehicle registration was checked, it was found that the car was registered in the name of Ravi Kumar, a resident of Mumbai. With the help of local police of Mumbai, the registered owner was contacted, she said.

After enquiry with the owner, it was revealed that his brother had given his car to a garage for repair, which led us to Shubham Jain, a resident of Uttam Nagar, who was found to have been behind the wheel at the time of accident, the officer said.

The car, damaged in places, was recovered from Arya Samaj Road in Uttam Nagar near Jain's house and was seized, the DCP said.