Chandigarh cops drag feet on car race deaths

CHANDIGARH - Police Wednesday was yet to identify the two women in a Honda Accord that left two people, including a six-year-old child, dead in a high-security area of Chandigarh the night before.

A car race between the Honda Accord and the Maruti Swift, believed by police to be driven by women, had Tuesday evening ended in a fatal accident, killing Satinder Singh, 21, and his cousin Harpreet Singh, 6, who were on a motorcycle.

Though the police identified the expensive Honda Accord car bearing a VIP number (CH03-R-0018) as that of retired Lt Col. G.S. Brar, resident of an upscale area of Sector 36, they have not been able to identify and arrest the women who were driving the car.

Brar’s son, B.S. Brar, a serving lieutenant colonel in the Indian Army, told the media Wednesday morning that no women were driving the car during the time of the accident.

“No women were driving the car. Who is saying all this? My driver was driving the car when the accident happened. He had gone to drop my father for golf,” B.S. Brar claimed in the face of mounting pressure on the police to act against those who killed the motorcycle victims.

According to police officials, the accident occurred near the dividing road of upscale Sectors 2 and 3 here - close to the official residences of both Punjab and Haryana chief ministers. The area is a high-security zone with Z-plus security VIPs living there.

“The Honda Accord car, which was being driven by a woman, hit a bike from the rear. The victims, identified as Satinder Singh, 21, and his cousin Harpreet Singh, 6, were badly hit by the car,” said a police official.

“Another woman was sitting on the front seat. The impact of the collision was so strong that the air bags of the car inflated. Both the women came out and fled in a Maruti Swift car, with which they were competing in a race.”

Satinder and Harpreet were residents of Kansal village near here and were coming from a government hospital after taking medicines for Satinder’s ailing mother. Satinder was pursuing an engineering course at Kharar town, about 20 km from here, while Harpreet was studying in a school.

Their cousin Sarabjit Singh was driving along them on a separate motorcycle. He was the only eyewitness in this case.

Police have registered a case against unidentified women in the Sector 3 police station here.

Though the police reached the house of Brar Tuesday night itself, the owner did not cooperate with the police till Wednesday morning, officials said.

A source said a few army officers reached the Sector 3 police station Wednesday morning to mount pressure on the police for a possible cover-up of the accident.