Kolkata hit-and-run: Ex-legislator's younger son behind wheels

The city police which issued a look-out notice against former RJD legislator Mohammad Sohrab and his two sons in connection with the hit-and-run case in which an Indian Air Force officer was killed, on Saturday claimed it was the younger son who was behind the wheels.

While police had initially suspected Sohrab's elder son Ambia Sohrab to be driving the sports utility vehicle which mowed down Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud on January 13, Special Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Debasish Boral said it was the younger son Sambia who was driving the car.

"It is more or less confirmed, Sambia was driving the car," said Boral, adding that police raided 10 places across the city in search of the absconding accused.

The development comes on a day when the state's ruling Trinamool Congress rubbished claims that the former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator Sohrab was a Trinamool member.

With police yet to make any arrest or trace the Sohrabs, opposition parties have been accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of thwarting the investigation to shield the leader said to have joined the Trinamool earlier.

"Sohrab had become an MLA on the support of the Left Front, but he is being projected as a Trinamool leader. Trinamool never had any links with Sohrab, he is neither a member or nor a leader of the party," Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee said.

Rejecting Chatterjee's assertions, Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Ashok Ghosh said: "It was Mukul Roy (former Trinamool general secretary) who had inducted Sohrab into the Trinamool. Chatterjee is now denying only because Sohrab is wanted in the case."

BJP leader Roopa Ganguly too hit out at the Trinamool for shielding the guilty.

"It has been almost four days but police are still clueless and not able to make any arrest. Sohrab, being a Trinamool leader, was allowed to flee, only because he is a Trinamool leader, police can't find him," said the actress-turned-politician.

The accident took place at the Indira Gandhi Sarani (erstwhile Red Road) which is being kept out of bounds for civilian traffic during mornings for the Republic Day parade rehearsals.

Breaking police barricades, the SUV knocked down 21-year-old Gaud, who was supervising the parade rehearsals.

The IAF, which is also probing the matter, too claimed "vested interests" were thwarting the probe.

"There is a set of people, for their vested interest, they do not want the investigation to proceed," said an IAF officer.