Bengaluru: The Indiranagar police on Tuesday arrested Samrat Chadha, vice-president (sales) of the UB Group, who crashed his BMW car into an autorickshaw under the influence of alcohol leaving four people injured on Saturday night.
In his statement to the police, Samrat said that the autorickshaw came in front of his car all of a sudden and he crashed into it as he could not control his vehicle. Samrat, who hails from Bandra (West) in Mumbai and lives in Adarsh Vista Villas in Vignan Nagar on Old Airport Road, was arrested on charges of drunk and rash driving and other sections of the Indian Motor Vehicle Act.
When Deccan Chronicle asked as to why the police took three days to arrest Chadha and why he was let off after the accident when he refused to cooperate with the police, DCP Traffic (East) C.K .Baba said, “An internal enquiry has been initiated as to why there was a delay in his arrest. I have ordered the ACP (Traffic-East) to conduct the investigation and submit a report. We will decide the next course of action after the report is submitted.”
Unconfirmed reports said that it is not the first time that Chadha was involved in an accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. In 2011 in Goa, he reportedly rammed his high-end car into a pole while trying to show off his driving skills to one of his woman colleagues seated in his car. But the local police refused to divulge any information.
After detaining him on Saturday night, the Indiranagar traffic police subjected him to a medical test which proved he was under the influence of alcohol. Police also seized his vehicle.
The incident occurred around 11 pm on GM Palya Main Road off CV Raman Nagar in East Bengaluru. Three men were going from Jeevanbima Nagar to GM Palya in the autorickshaw to attend a temple festival when Chadha’s BMW 320D hit their vehicle.
It is said that Chadha argued with the police and did not initially cooperate with the investigation. It is also reported that a head constable had slapped Chadha when he did not budge. Later, he agreed to undergo medical tests.
