Chandigarh: The Punjab police has claimed to have arrested a 30-year-old man from Canada in relation to the hit-and-run case which led to the death of veteran marathoner Fauja Singh on Monday.
According to information, the accused, identified as Amritpal Singh Dhillon, a non-resident Indian (NRI), was arrested late Tuesday night from his native of Dasupur village of Kartarpura town of Jalandhar district. Dhillon was said to have come from Canada few days ago.
He had purchased a white Toyota Fortuner (PB-20-C-7100) from a Kapurthala resident, which police identified as the SUV which hit the 114-year old marathon runner.
The police claimed to have tracked down the SUV with the help of CCTV footage from the area; the police first compiled a list of suspected vehicles zeroing in on the vehicle involved in the accident.
The police teams got in the touch with the (registered) owner of the SUV, one Varinder Singh, of the vehicle on the basis of its registration number - a resident of Kapurthala, who told the police that he had sold the SUV to Dhillon, an NRI, about two years ago and that Dhillon had recently returned from Canada. Police said the SUV had been sold twice in the past.
Stating that the vehicle has been seized, senior superintendent of police, Jalandhar (rural), Harvinder Singh told newspersons that the some pieces of broken headlight and the bumper of the vehicle involved which had fallen off were also recovered from the accident site. Dhillon has been booked for rash driving and culpable homicide not amounting to murder, according to reports.
Dhillon reportedly told police that the accident took place when he was driving from Bhogpur to Kishangarh village when he hit an elderly person (Fauja Singh) on the highway in the latter’s village Bias. Stating that he was returning from Mukerian town after selling his phone when his vehicle struck an elderly person.
He said that he was not aware at the time of the accident that he had hit the legendary marathoner and learnt about it only from the news the next day. He also said that he had panicked after the accident and drove through various villages bypassing the Jalandhar city avoiding CCTV cameras, to reach his native village.
Popularly known as "Turbaned Tornado’’, Fauja Singh was a global icon; He had moved to England in early 1990s to live with one of his sons after the death of his wife Gian Kaur, seeking a fresh start. In 2011, a 100 years old Singh made headlines by setting eight world age-group records in a single day. His remarkable journey earned him several global prestigious honours.
