Probe finds ‘impostor’ driver wasn’t near accident site
Syed Imtiyaz Qadri, the man who allegedly impersonated Ishaq Ahmad, a truck driver from Bareilly, and claimed to be driving the Audi which killed four people on January 27, was in Bareilly on the day of the accident, police investigations show.
HT has learnt from investigators, who reportedly scanned Qadri’s call records data and phone location that he was in Bareilly till around 9pm on January 27. The speeding Audi crashed into an auto-rickshaw around 12.15am killing four people on the Hindon canal road near Delhi-UP border on the same night in Ghaziabad, nearly 240 km from Bareilly.
Car owner, Dr Manish Rawat, who later claimed he was in the car but wasn’t driving it, fled the spot. Dr Rawat is a neurosurgeon at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.
On January 30, a man from Bareilly approached a Ghaziabad court with his surrender application claiming to be the Audi car driver on the night of the accident. He identified himself as Ishaq Ahmad. On January 31, the man surrendered before the Ghaziabad court and got bail.
An HT team that visited Bareilly found Ishaq Ahmad was a truck driver who never drove an Audi or SUVs. On being shown photos of the person who surrendered, Ahmad identified him as his former co-tenant Syed Imtiyaz Qadri. Ahmad said Qadri had borrowed the photocopy of his driving licence and submitted it in the court to establish his identity as Ahmad.
“When I asked Qadri why he used the photocopy of my driving licence and my name, he said he needed money and was paid Rs 8,000 for the job,” Ishaq said.
Police officers privy to the probe said that Qadri was in Ghaziabad for the first time on January 30 and January 31 — when he surrendered in court — and reached Bareilly on the night of the January 31.
“Our investigations are proceeding on similar lines. Every person involved in the accident and even the later episode of surrender is a suspect. We have told our officials to investigate and proceed towards filing a chargesheet for concealing evidence. No one is given any clean chit in the entire case so far. Electronic evidence is being investigated further,” said Deepak Kumar, senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad.