Mumbai: The Vartak Nagar police arrested the driver of the dumper on Wednesday for allegedly hitting two people, including a police constable from Thane Crime Branch Unit five in Vartak Nagar in Thane on Wednesday morning.
The driver of the dumper has been identified as Mahattam Rampat Varma, 46, a resident of Navi Mumbai. Senior Police Inspector Rajkumar Waghchavre of Vartak Nagar police said, "We have arrested the truck driver. He was produced in court and remanded into police custody for one day."
The deceased have been identified as Sunil Rawate, 40, who lived with his wife and two children in Thane, and second deceased- Nisha Dhaypurkar lived in Thane.
The incident took place at Vartak Nagar when Rawate was riding a motorcycle, and Dhaypurkar was riding pillion on their way to a place near Vedant Hospital in Thane from Aaimata Mandir in Thane for a secret investigation. Police sources said that Rawate was appointed in the special squad of the Anti-narcotics Cell of Thane to collect information about narcotics work being conducted across Thane.
Rawate left the house in the morning at about 7:30 and arrived at the Crime Branch at 8 AM. He then left the Crime Branch at 10:30 AM for the Head Office of the Anti-Narcotics Cell of Thane. Police sources said that during the preliminary probe, it showed that Dhaypurkar might have been an informant who had provided a tip-off.
The police said that the dumper was coming from the same direction, hit them, and sped away. The locals rushed to the spot and found both crushed and lying in a pool of blood, then alerted the local police about the incident.
The police rushed to the spot and took them to a nearby hospital, where they were declared dead upon arrival. Thereafter, both bodies were sent to the Civil Hospital for post-mortem. A case was lodged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Motor Vehicle Act against the driver of the dumper.
