Chandigarh,: A Canada-based man, who allegedly hit world’s oldest marathoner Fauja Singh fatally while driving an SUV, was arrested and sent to judicial custody, with officials saying the accused had returned home in Punjab just three weeks ago.
Jalandhar Rural Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Harvinder Singh told a press conference that Amritpal Singh Dhillon (26) was arrested on Tuesday night, and his vehicle has also been seized.
Police took the case as a challenge and solved it within 30 hours, he said. Later in the day, Dhillon was produced before a Jalandhar court, which remanded him to judicial custody for two weeks.
Dhillon, a native of Kartarpur, had gone to Canada on a tourist visa, but there he got a work permit, which is valid till 2027, the officer said, adding the accused came to India late last month. He was nabbed from his Kartarpur home.
Replying to a question, the SSP said that during preliminary questioning, it came to the fore that Dhillon was in a hurry for some work and, therefore, was driving his SUV at high speed, hitting 114-year-old Fauja Singh.
“At that time, he was not aware of the identity of the man hit by the car. He told us that he got scared (after the accident) and that is why he did not stop his vehicle there,” said the SSP.
The police officer told reporters that Dhillon was going towards Jalandhar, but after the accident, he returned home by driving through villages.
The accused also told the police that he had got one of the tyres of the car changed on the day of the incident. The SSP, however, said it was Dhillon’s responsibility to stop the vehicle at the time of the accident and should have taken Fauja Singh to a hospital.
Dhillon allegedly hit Fauja Singh in the veteran runner’s native village of Bias in Punjab’s Jalandhar district when he was walking down the Jalandhar-Pathankot highway and crossing it when the incident occurred.
Fauja Singh succumbed to injuries on Monday evening. According to villagers, Singh was tossed five to seven feet in the air after being hit by the vehicle.
Fauja Singh’s son Harvinder Singh told reporters in Jalandhar on Wednesday that Dhillon could have stopped his SUV and immediately
rushed the marathoner to a hospital. agencies