The owner of the car that allegedly killed four on the airport-bound flank of VIP Road on Monday is said to have told police that the driver of the vehicle had dropped him off, finished duty around 9pm and told him he was heading home with the car “as was the usual practice”.
The owner of the Mahindra XUV 300, who lives in Howrah, has said he used to let driver Hiralal Jaiswara take the car to his house every night so he could clean it up and bring it around to his house every morning, a senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.
“The car owner has told us that this was the usual practice and he did not know that the car was being driven around on Monday night,” the officer added.
Around 2am on Monday, Jaiswara lost control of the vehicle and first hit a motorcycle before ramming into a truck. The two-wheeler and the truck had stopped at the red light at the Dum Dum Park intersection of VIP Road in northeast Kolkata.
The crash killed both men on the bike — Rohit Kumar, 23, and his friend Babu Kundu, 25, who was riding pillion — along with Jaiswara, 46, and Puja Singh, 30, who was in the front passenger seat.
Cousins Kundan and Rajesh Mullick, in their 20s, who hail from Howrah’s Salkia and were seated in the rear passenger seat, were injured. They are admitted at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said a CCTV camera installed at the Dum Dum Park intersection had recorded the car hitting the motorcycle and the truck at a very high speed.
Several eyewitnesses, including the drivers of at least two other vehicles, have apparently told the police that the car had been dangerously overtaking other vehicles on VIP Road.
The police have yet to confirm formally whether the driver was under the influence of alcohol.
A senior officer said they would comment only after a formal post-mortem report arrived.