Killer Audi's alleged driver says police implicating him

Ishaq Ahmed, a driver from Bareilly who has denied he was at the steering wheel of an Audi Q7 that mowed down four people here last month, on Saturday alleged that police had forcibly taken his father's thumb impression on a document to acknowledge summons and were implicating him in the case.

Ahmed, 31, spoke to IANS over the phone from Assam where he said he was driving a truck and was planning to return to his village home in Bareilly on Sunday.

He said he would appear before a court in Ghaziabad on Monday to "settle the issue" after a person impersonating him "confessed" to have driven the SUV that ran over an auto-rickshaw, killing four people, on January 28 in Ghaziabad.

Police have not been able to identify who was behind the wheel of the luxury car belonging to Safdarjung Hospital neurosurgeon, Manish Rawat, when the accident occurred.

Anil Yadav, a police officer heading the probe in the case, told IANS that a person who identified himself as Ishaq of Labhera in Bareilly surrendered before the court on January 31, confessing that he was behind the wheel of the car when the accident occurred.

"We have sent separate notices to Ishaq and the owner of the SUV to appear before police to assist in the case," Yadav said.

Police said Rawat was "still on the run" but his lawyer had approached them claiming that the driver who was behind the wheel that day would surrender in a court.

Speaking to IANS, Ahmed said he was intrigued how his name even cropped up in the case when he was in Ahmedabad on the night of the accident.

He said he didn't even know the doctor and his family and had never driven any luxury car and has driven only trucks for the last seven-eight years.

"A police team reached my home (in Bareilly), with a summons in my name. They told my father to affix his thumb impression on the summons document. When my father refused, they abused him, and threatened 'Your son has accepted in court of killing four people in a road accident'," he said.

"I think police and the judicial system is trying to implicate me in the case on the basis of a statement made by a person impersonating me," he said.

According to Ahmed, he left Bareilly on January 9 and returned home around 2 a.m. on January 31 on way to Guwahati.

"On January 7, I left Sitarganj (Uttarakhand) after loading my truck with plywood for Natwada (Rajasthan). On the way, I stayed at my village on January 8 and again left from there the next day. On January 11, I reached my destination in Rajasthan.

"On January 25 I left for Ahmedabad carrying some machine loaded on my truck. On January 27, I left Ahmedabad for Guwahati with some plastic materials and took a halt at my village in the intervening night of January 30 and 31," Ahmed said.

Asked about his driving licence and statement being part of the court and police records, Ahmed said: "I am innocent. I will approach Ghaziabad court on Monday and challenge the impersonator, and ask to clear the matter. The copy of my driving licence has been misused."

"In the Audi accident, the fake driver was not arrested by police. He surrendered in court, accepted his crime, and got bail. We are probing the matter," Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Javeed Ahmad tweeted.

(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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