Red Road incident: City police arrest Shanu from New Delhi

The Kolkata Police arrested Shanu alias Shahnawaz from Alipur in New Delhi on Sunday night in connection with the hit-and-run case in which an officer of the Indian Air Force was killed while supervising the rehearsal of the Republic Day parade on Red Road.

Contradicting the claim of officers from the city police’s detective department, Shanu’s brother Khaled claimed that his brother had surrendered and he was not arrested. 

Sources said Shanu had contacted one of his relatives in Kolkata on Saturday to inform that he had only Rs 350 left with him. He sought his help to get some money and a safe hideout. Shanu, who was then hiding at a friend’s house in Ranchi, was asked to somehow reach New Delhi where he may get shelter in his maternal house. Police came to know about the telephonic conversation between Shanu and his relative when the latter informed the Bowbazar police station.

Shanu was produced before the Tis Hazari Court in Delhi and the court remanded him in transit remand for two days. It may be mentioned that Shanu is the second person who was arrested in connection with the case after Shambia Sohrab. Police are yet to arrest Johny, another youth who was suspected to be one of the accomplices. Shambia’s brother Ambia and father former RJD MLA Md Sohrab is also at large. 

According to a senior police officer, Shanu has been interrogated after he was brought to the city in a flight. 

Two officers of the city police’s detective department brought Shanu to Kolkata. 

He will be produced before the Bankshall Court on Tuesday where police will seek for his remand, the officer said.  

“In a bid to reconstruct the incident, face-to-face interrogation of all three – Shambia, Johny and Shanu – is essential,” the officer said.

It may be mentioned that in a video footage of Johny that became public on Sunday, he claimed that Shambia was driving the Audi which hit the Air Force officer and he was in a Scoda along with Shanu. 

On Monday, Shanu too claimed the same thing. Shanu said the offending car was being driven by Shambia.     

Investigating officers, however, still believe that there was only one car and preliminary investigation revealed that Shambia was driving the car, Johny was sitting beside him and Shanu was in the rear seat. 

Sources said Shambia also told to the police during interrogation that Shanu had directed him to speed up the car after it broke the first security barricade. 

Shambia had contacted his father Md Sohrab after the accident and his father had directed him to flee from the city at around 9.30 pm. 

Following his father’s direction, he left the city and went to Kolaghat and later he went to Ranchi.