The Bulandshahr police on Sunday arrested two men in connection with the death of Sudeeksha Bhati, a 19-year-old student studying in a prestigious U.S. university, in a road accident in the Aurangabad area of the district on August 10.
The accused — Deepak Chaudhary, 25, an architect, and Raju, 56, a mason — were arrested by a three-member SIT formed to probe the case. Sudeeksha’s family had alle-ged that she was harassed by “two men on a motorcycle” when she was going to meet her uncle on a motorbike. The SIT zeroed in on the two accused after scanning at least 10,000 motorcycles and CCTV footage of the area.
At a press conference on Sunday, SSP, Bulandshahr, Santosh Kumar Singh ruled out the harassment angle. “CCTV footage of 12 different locations revealed that the accused were always ahead of the motorcycle on which Sudeeksha was riding pillion.” He said investigators had come to the conclusion that it was a case of an accident. A bullock cart came in front of a tempo that was moving in front of the two motorcycles. When the tempo applied brakes, the accused followed suit but Sudeeksha’s cousin could not respond in time, leading to the accident, Mr Singh told reporters.
According to police sources, Deepak and Raju were going to a construction site on the day of the accident. “After the news spread, Deepak got his motorbike modified, changed the tyres, covered it with a camouflage sticker,” said an official involved in the investigation.
On the basis of the complaint of Sudeeksha’s father, the Bulandshahr police had lodged an FIR under Sections 304 A (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 279 (rash driving) and relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act against unidentified persons.
