Abhishek Kumar Pandey, accused of assaulting and throwing a woman out of his Honda City and running over another woman while trying to flee on Saturday night, has told cops it was an “internal matter that went out of hand”.

Pandey was arrested in Dum Dum on Tuesday night.

He has apparently told cops he and the woman were supposed to get married in December and that they were arguing over when to buy a flat. The argument turned violent and they started hitting each other, he has apparently said.

“He has claimed the woman had bitten his hand and that he, too, had slapped her when they were inside the car on Saturday night but they had no intention of going to the police against each other,” an officer in Lalbazar said.

The police have sought forensic opinion to verify Pandey’s claim of the woman having bitten him, the officer said.

A city court on Wednesday remanded him in police custody till September 16.

Pandey’s lawyer told the court he and the woman were in a long-term relationship and that their marriage had to be postponed to December because of the pandemic. “They were having normal issues like any other couple. He wanted her to stay a little more but she wanted to go home. It was nothing serious,” the lawyer said.

The police, however, said the fight was not just about going back home but about the plan to buy a flat.

“He was engaged with a private insurance company. He lost his job during the lockdown. He recently joined a tea company on Shakespeare Sarani and had sought some time from the woman before he could buy a flat. This had been the bone of contention between the two for the past few weeks,” an officer who is investigating the matter said.

The police have learnt during investigation that Pandey had gone to the woman’s home later on Saturday night to return her phone and other belongings. He had left them with the building’s guard.

“The woman had initially tried to misguide us with a false name. She later said she wanted to save Pandey and that she had no intention of lodging any police complaint against him. But she had to involve the police because of Nilanjana Chatterjee who got grievously injured while trying to help the woman who was shouting inside the car,” the officer said.

On Saturday night, the woman had told cops she had met Pandey five days ago and that his name was Amitabha Bose.

Senior officers said the police would seek legal opinion on whether to charge the woman with giving false information initially to misguide cops.

During investigation, the police have found that Pandey had taken shelter in a guest house in Mukundapur, around 4km from Anandapur police station, on Sunday night before checking out early in the morning the next day. He later met a lawyer in Sealdah.

His mobile phone was switched off but the GPRS on his phone was working. His movement was tracked first to the guest house and then to the Sealdah home of the lawyer, after which he had switched off the GPRS.

On Tuesday night, cops could again track him to a place near Dum Dum from where he was arrested.