Noida: Around 9.30 am, a middle-aged man wearing a monkey cap and muffler reached Devdutt Sharma’s shop to change the glass of a white Santro. Sharma remembered him as he was the first customer of the new year, and had not expected the day so soon.
The owner of Ruhi Glass Solutions in Tugalpur village of Greater Noida also noticed that the windshield of the hatchback was not only cracked but had a deep concave indent and some hair sticking out on it.
Sharma’s son Vicky also asked the middle-aged man at the shop what had happened. Vicky said, “They said some kids broke the glass with a brick and there must have been some dust and hair on it.”
After changing the glass, the man went to a car mechanic shop just 20 meters away.
There, Asif – an employee of Saddam Motors – repaired the Santro’s broken headlight and some dents on the left side of the bumper. There the old man told a different story. “The person in the muffler told me that the Santro was hit by another vehicle,” Asif told TOI on Monday.
It was Asif’s statement that gave the police the crucial clue – the Santro’s registration number – they needed to trace the car they had been on the lookout for since New Year’s Eve and its driver. He told the police that he remembered the number plate because it was “unique” – U AB 2700.
The number led investigators to 45-year-old contractor Gulab Singh, a B.Tech student lover Kumari, with severe brain injuries and multiple leg fractures, died on a Greater Noida road on December 31 when she along with two of her friends were returning home after loading bricks for a planned New Year bonfire.
The contractor was arrested from his Beta-2 house on Sunday.
Vicky told TOI that he had heard about the incident on the news, but did not think that the culprit would be one of his customers. He said, “Last weekend a police team came here to inquire about the car. I told them that we have changed the windshield and the man went to go to the mechanic. ) also took some CCTV footage from the shopping complex.”
“From now on I am maintaining a register of any suspicious vehicle,” he said.
The owner of Ruhi Glass Solutions in Tugalpur village of Greater Noida also noticed that the windshield of the hatchback was not only cracked but had a deep concave indent and some hair sticking out on it.
Sharma’s son Vicky also asked the middle-aged man at the shop what had happened. Vicky said, “They said some kids broke the glass with a brick and there must have been some dust and hair on it.”
After changing the glass, the man went to a car mechanic shop just 20 meters away.
There, Asif – an employee of Saddam Motors – repaired the Santro’s broken headlight and some dents on the left side of the bumper. There the old man told a different story. “The person in the muffler told me that the Santro was hit by another vehicle,” Asif told TOI on Monday.
It was Asif’s statement that gave the police the crucial clue – the Santro’s registration number – they needed to trace the car they had been on the lookout for since New Year’s Eve and its driver. He told the police that he remembered the number plate because it was “unique” – U AB 2700.
The number led investigators to 45-year-old contractor Gulab Singh, a B.Tech student lover Kumari, with severe brain injuries and multiple leg fractures, died on a Greater Noida road on December 31 when she along with two of her friends were returning home after loading bricks for a planned New Year bonfire.
The contractor was arrested from his Beta-2 house on Sunday.
Vicky told TOI that he had heard about the incident on the news, but did not think that the culprit would be one of his customers. He said, “Last weekend a police team came here to inquire about the car. I told them that we have changed the windshield and the man went to go to the mechanic. ) also took some CCTV footage from the shopping complex.”
“From now on I am maintaining a register of any suspicious vehicle,” he said.