Kolkata hit-and-run: Police arrest absconding driver

Four days after he mowed down an Indian Air Force officer with his speeding sports utility vehicle (SUV), Sambia Sohrab was arrested by the city police late Saturday.

Breaking police barricades, Sambia, son of former RJD legislator Mohammad Sohrab, knocked down 21-year-old Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud, who was supervising Republic Day parade rehearsals at the Indira Gandhi Sarani on January 13.

Sambia, along with his brother Ambia and father Mohammad Sohrab, had been absconding since the day of the accident.

Police had issued a look-out notice against the trio on Thursday.

"Sambia was arrested in the night from the city. He is being interrogated," said Special Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Debasish Boral.

While police had initially suspected Sohrab's elder son Ambia as the one involved in the accident, Boral on Saturday evening said it was Sambia who was driving the car.

Following directions by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the police have included murder charge among other offences against the accused.

The arrest came on a day when the Trinamool Congress rubbished claims that the former legislator was a leader of the state's ruling party.

With the police's inability in tracking the absconding trio, the opposition had been accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of trying to shield the Sohrabs claiming the former legislator had joined the Trinamool.

"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.

"Neither the alleged driver of the car, nor his father has ever attended formal, committee or organisational meetings of the Trinamool. Neither of them has ever been appointed to a post nor got a letter to this effect from the party," Trinamool spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien said.

But the opposition rejected Trinamool's assertions.

"It was Mukul Roy (former Trinamool general secretary) who had inducted Sohrab into the Trinamool. They are now denying only because Sohrab is wanted in the case," Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Ashok Ghosh noted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, too have accused the Banerjee government of interfering in the probe claiming Sohrab to be a Trinamool leader.

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.