Ahmedabad, Jul 26 (PTI) Another FIR was registered against Tathya Patel, who allegedly crashed his Jaguar car into a crowd killing nine persons in Ahmedabad last week, after his questioning revealed he had rammed the same SUV into a temple on the Ahmedabad-Sanand road on January 1, Gujarat Police said.
The latest First Information Report was registered with Santej police station in Gandhinagar district.
As per the FIR, Patel crashed his SUV into a temple near Vansajada village on Ahmedabad-Sanand Road in the early hours of January 1 which damaged its pillar and led to the collapse of a portion of the temple terrace, Santej police sub-inspector Vijaysinh Gohil said on Wednesday.
Patel (20) has been booked under relevant sections of the Motor Vehicle Act and sections 279 (rash driving) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of the Indian Penal Code.
Though the temple crash incident occurred around seven months ago, villagers or the temple priest did not approach police initially because they didn’t know the identity of the person responsible for the damage, said Gohil.
“During his remand in the ISKCON flyover case, Patel confessed to having crashed the same SUV into a temple’s pillar on January 1 and driving away. Some of his friends were also travelling in that car. After his confession, we took the complaint from a villager and registered an FIR against Patel on Tuesday,” said investigating officer Gohil.
As per the FIR, a concrete pillar of the temple suffered damage due to the impact of the Jaguar car, which resulted in the collapse of a portion of the temple terrace.
The complaint was lodged by former sarpanch Manaji Thakor.
Nine persons, including a police constable, were killed when the speeding Jaguar car driven by Patel ploughed into a crowd gathered at an accident site on the ISKCON bridge in Ahmedabad on July 20, police had said.
Patel, who was also injured, was arrested the same day on various charges including ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’ under section 304 of the IPC.
He was remanded in judicial custody on Tuesday. Patel’s father Pragnesh Patel was also arrested for allegedly threatening people on the flyover.
On July 22, Ahmedabad traffic police registered a separate FIR against an unidentified driver for crashing his SUV into the front wall of a restaurant on July 3. The FIR was registered based on a complaint submitted by restaurant owner Mihir Shah, police had said.
Though Tathya Patel was not named in that FIR, police claimed that during questioning, Tathya Patel “confessed” that he had rammed his Thar SUV into the compound wall of a restaurant on July 3. PTI PJT NSK
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