A day after his arrest, Sambia Sohrab, main accused in the Red Road hit-and-run case, was remanded to two weeks’ police custody by the Bankshall Court even as the possibility of his surrender to the p
A day after his arrest, Sambia Sohrab, main accused in the Red Road hit-and-run case, was remanded to two weeks’ police custody by the Bankshall Court even as the possibility of his surrender to the police became prominent. He faced night-long interrogation in joint commissioner of police (crime) Debashish Boral’s chamber at Lalbazar, the city police headquarters.
The younger son of the Trinamul Congress leader Muhammad Sohrab initially did not cooperate during interrogation but later admitted he was driving the car, sources revealed. On Sunday afternoon, Sambia was produced at the court which was already turned into a fortress with the deployment of a heavy police force.
Sambia was booked on charges of Sections 302 (mu-rder), 307 (attempt to murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence), 212 (harbouring the offender) and 427 (mischief causing damage) of the Indian Penal Code.
His lawyers prayed to the judge to grant him bail. They argued though the car belonged to Mussadi Business Pvt Ltd, with Sambia being one of its directors.
They wondered how the case attracted murder charge instead of culpable homicide charge. Opposing their move, public prosecutor Abhijit Chatterjee appealed to the judge to remand Sambia in 14 days’ police custody. He argued it was proven Sambia was driving his AudiQ7 which ran over IAF Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud during the Republic Day parade rehearsal early January 13. Mr Chatterjee pointed out that the SUV also hit a Captain-rank officer of the Army before killing Gaud. According to him, Sambia breached security cordon deliberately for which he faces murder charge.
Hearing both sides, the judge rejected Sambia’s bail plea and sent him to 14 days’ police custody. The claim by the police of arresting Sambia from near his in-laws’ residence in Beckbagan on Saturday was punctured by many.
Honey, elder brother of Johny, who is one of Sambia’s friends and is absconding now, said, “Sambia called me up on Saturday saying that he was going to meet his lawyer for surrender. He asked me to change my statement to the police and to tell them that he was sleeping with Johny in our residence while Shanu drove away his car, though it was not true.”
He added, “Sambia then told me I would get a call around 30 minutes later from his manager Raj who would guide me how to tell the story to the police.”
