SIT to probe Kolkata hit-and-run case

With 48 hours having passed since the driver of a speeding Audi killed air force officer Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud on Red Road, the Kolkata Police has formed a 22-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) and issued a lookout notice for the two prime suspects.

The police’s failure to apprehend the culprit despite having substantial evidence, however, has left it to face criticism from various quarters.

The team, led by Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department-II), Nagendra Tripathi, has issued a lookout notice for former RJD MLA Mohammad Sohrab and his two sons, Ambia and Sambia, either of whom could have been behind the SUV’s wheels that violated a number of traffic rules before running over Corporal Gaud. The police have registered a case of homicide against the driver. Opposition parties, who criticised Trinamool Congress for failing to apprehend the driver, alleged the police are stalling the arrest because of Sohrab’s proximity to the ruling party.

The former MLA, who won the Assembly seat in 2006, quit RJD few years ago and is now believed to share close ties with Trinamool.

Party leaders have refrained from making any comments or issuing rebuttal to the allegations. Sources in the army’s Eastern Command headquarters at Fort William in the city said that while senior military officers are keeping an eye on developments, questions are being raised as to why it is taking so long to apprehend the driver.

The two brothers were last tracked to Park Street in central Kolkata few hours after the hit-and-run but since then they have switched off their phones and gone untraceable. Their father also went missing within hours of the incident.