Dehradun Police used force to disperse some protesters who blocked a road at Dilaram Chowk on Wednesday demanding arrest of the driver who had allegedly crushed a boy under the wheels of his car on the night of November 28.
The protesters, mostly Dl Road (Dehradun) residents, shouted slogans against police administration and later pelted stones at police, alleging that the cops were doing nothing to arrest the accused. Police resorted to lathi charge to disperse them and to open the road to restore normal traffic flow.
A Dalanwala-based police officer said that the road accident had occurred on late November 28 night when Gaurav along with two of his friends was going towards Survey Chowk on a motorbike. Gaurav was hit by a speeding car when he got down from the two-wheeler to answer nature’s call at Old Survey Chowk. He had sustained severe head injuries while the driver escaped with the car, the police officer informed, adding that Gaurav was admitted at Doon Hospital where he was pronounced dead by the doctors.
With the road blockade on, traffic came to a grinding halt at the busy Dilaram Chowk off Rajpur Road. The protesters alleged that nearly five days having passed since the incident had occurred, police have failed to apprehend the car driver. Besides, police have not traced the car either, they said.
One of the protesters said that accidents being on the rise, one or two of them are being reported daily. Drunken and rash driving are to account for most of them, they said, adding that the police are failing to rein in on the violators of traffic rules.
Dalanwala police rushed in with the road remaining blocked. Initially, they asked the protesters to clear off. The appeal having failed to bear fruit, they resorted to lathi charge to disperse them, resulting in a few of the protestors sustaining minor injuries. Angered all the more by the police action, some protesters pelted stones on police.
Dalanwala police station in-charge inspector Anil Kumar Joshi said that deceased’s family has registered a report and a case under sections 341/147 of IPC was registered against unidentified persons in the police station. Police teams were formed and they are now working hard to arrest the accused, he said. The team members have reviewed CCTV camera footages installed at various places in the city to nail the driver. “One of the CCTV camera footages have shown a car plying that night. But the number is invisible. Vehicle checking drives are being conducted at various places in the area. We are sure that the accused would soon be arrested,” he said.