A Punjab government forensic team today gave a clean chit to the ruling Badal family owned luxury bus which, “witnesses” had alleged, killed a scooterist in Ropar on Thursday.
Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the accident “in its entirety”.
Contrary to the claims by the witnesses, the police had maintained that the victim, Swaran Singh (37), died after being hit by a car (I-20). A case of negligent driving too was registered against the car driver, Brahm Prakash Sharma of Amritsar.
A report by the forensic experts said the Chandigarh-Amritsar bus (PB03V-1900), belonging to Dabwali Transport Company Limited, bore no sign of contact with scooter or car. The witnesses, one of them the owner of a ‘dhaba’ near the accident spot, Jagtar Singh of Chaklan village (Ropar), however, had alleged that the recklessly driven bus crushed Swaran to death near his native Behrampur Zimindara village. The report said the car hit the scooter from behind, following which Swaran fell onto the car’s windscreen.
The DGP said the car and bus drivers, witnesses and bus passengers had given contradicting statements about the accident. “We have formed an SIT, which will submit its report within a week,” he said.
The SIT will be headed by IPS Sahota, ADGP-cum-Director, Bureau of Investigation, while G Nageswara Rao, IG (Crime), and RK Jaiswal, DIG, Ropar Range, will be its members. Saini said experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, too, would be consulted for an independent analysis.
A Badal family spokesperson said, “The family is shocked at its being dragged into the controversy and politicisation of the tragedy.”
Three unanswered questions
- Impressions of the tyres of a heavy vehicle were found exactly near the spot where Swaran Singh’s body was lying. Why is the forensic report silent on this?
- The car was damaged on the right side while Swaran Singh and his scooter were found lying on the extreme left of the road on a non-metalled portion. Had the car hit the scooter, shouldn’t it have entered the non-metalled portion? There were no impressions of the car’s tyres at this point.
- The car first seems to have hit the road divider on the right side and then veered into a low-lying area on the left. But marks on the road showed the scooter was dragged to some distance in a straight line.