Twist in car crash case: brother of arrested man behind

In a twist to the road accident case involving the scion of a restaurant chain owner, the police on Wednesday said they arrested his elder brother who was actually behind the steering wheel of the car that crashed early on Saturday leading to the death of two Bangladeshis.

The maternal uncle of the two brothers, who had helped the elder brother flee to Dubai after the accident, was also arrested.

After a mechanical test on the Jaguar, the sleuths found that the person they had arrested on Sunday was not even present inside the car at the time of the accident, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Murlidhar Sharma said.

"From the data accessed (during the mechanical test) from the system of the car, it was found that the elder brother was driving it. He had fled to Dubai with the help of his maternal uncle who was also arrested today," Sharma told reporters here.

When policemen had gone to the residence of the owner of the vehicle after the accident, the family handed over to the police the younger son of the restaurant chain owner on whose name the sedan was registered, he said.

"Now, the family has admitted that he was not at the driving wheel but it was his elder brother," Sharma added.

The elder brother was arrested from Beniapukur area of the city while his uncle was taken into custody from his residence.

However, it was still not clear why he had returned from Dubai, police sources said.

During the investigation, the police also found from CCTV footages at the accident spot and the roads through which it had sped past on that night, that the elder brother was driving the Jaguar, a police source said.

The sedan rammed into the side of another luxury car that hurtled towards a traffic police kiosk and dashed against it, killing two bystanders and injuring one - all Bangladeshis. Two occupants of the second car suffered serious injuries in the crash.

A city court on Sunday had sent the younger brother arrested earlier to 12 days' police remand.

The younger brother has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempt to commit culpable homicide, rash driving, mischief and damage to public property.

The accused allegedly was driving at a high speed in inclement weather, had jumped the red signal at the four-point Loudon Street-Shakespeare Sarani intersection in south Kolkata where the accident took place.