Four digits of a car help police solve hit-&-run case

Had it not been the tireless efforts taken by the Navghar police a hit and run case would have remain unsolved and that too on the virtue of a 4 digit clue captured by a CCTV camera.

The mishap was reported on the Goddev-Fatak road at around 2:40 am when the victim identified as Mahesh Shahi was about to cross the road. An over speeding car knocked him down and sped away. Shahi was rushed to a private hospital in a profusely bleeding state.

After battling for life for more than four days, Shahi succumbed to his injuries on Friday.

The police said that initially it was a blind case because the footages captured by the CCTV cameras installed near the accident site were not of much help, as it didn’t show the entire license plate of the vehicle.

“All we could gather was that it was a white car with hazy images showing 0155 as the last four digits. We established contact with the local RTO and searched for a white car with a registration number ending with 0155.

After shortlisting many numbers, we filtered them by focusing on car owners who reside in and around the city,” said Bhalsingh.

After checking more than 50 cars in Navi Mumbai, Virar, Borivali and Andheri, the police team finally caught the accused identified as Nalin Darji (34), a resident of Bhayandar who drove the white Hyundai Accent as a taxi.

“Confessing to have been at the wheel when his car knocked down the pedestrian, Darji was apparently connecting his mobile to the charging port in the moving car when he lost control and rammed into Shahi,” revealed an investigating officer.

The car has been impounded and the accused booked under section 304 (a) of the IPC, he will be produced before the court on Sunday.