Representative image of an arrest.
Credit: iStock Photo
Belagavi: Police on Wednesday identified the vehicle and nabbed the driver involved in an accident of official vehicle of Women and Child Welfare Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar in which she and her brother MLC Channaraj Hattiholi had suffered injuries on January 14 this year.
Hebbalkar had been hospitalised for a long period.
The state minister was on her way to the city with her brother Hattiholi and gunman Irappa Hunshikatti. Driver Shivaprasad G was driving the vehicle. When the vehicle came near the Ambadgatti cross on the Pune-Bengaluru national highway in the early hours of January 14, the driver of a truck moving ahead of the car shifted lane suddenly without giving any signal and the car dashed against the truck and skidded on to the service road and rammed into a tree.
Hebbalkar had suffered severe back injuries and had to be hospitalised. Hattiholi too suffered injuries but had preferred to avail treatment from home.
Superintendent of Police Dr Bheemashankar Guled said police teams investigating the case had collected details of all the trucks which had travelled on the Dharwad-Belagavi stretch and at the toll plaza. CCTV footage at one dhaba was also verified.
Police identified the vehicle and its driver as one Madhukar Kondiram Somvanshi, a resident of Takkarwadi village in Indupur in Pune district of Maharashtra.
FSL teams verified the vehicles and colour matching was done.
Transport Department too gave its report regarding the accident. Police also verified the call records of the accused. Accused Somvanshi has been arrested and the vehicle involved in the accident has been seized, he said.
Kittur police are investigating the case further.