‘Absconding’ Car Owner In Bhubaneswar’s Hit-&-Run Case Arrested

Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police on Tuesday arrested Bikas Pal, who was on the run after crushing a daily wager sleeping on a footpath at Rajmahal Square in Odisha capital on Saturday.

Police sources said that Pal had to Athagarh area in Cuttack and Jajpur district after the accident. He was nabbed from the outskirts of the city while he was returning. He has been booked under Section 279 (driving or riding on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life), and Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) of IPC.

The accident took place late in the night when Pal, who is an officer at a private bank in the city, was returning to Bhubaneswar from Athagarh. The car veered off the road as he drove from AG Square towards Rajmahal Square at breakneck speed and went over the footpath at Rajmahal Square where the labourer was sleeping. He had then abandoned his car on the bed of the Daya river and even threw his mobile phone away to evade detection, police sources said.

Though it was still unclear whether Pal was at the wheel when 45-year-old Dinabandhu Baral from Pipili was crushed to death, his mysterious disappearance strongly raised suspicion against him. Police were unable to trace him earlier despite raids at his house at Kakatpur and his residence in Pokhariput five to seven times.

On the other hand, the transport department has sought a report from regional transport officer (Bhubaneswar-1) into the fatal hit-and-run accident.