Killer Audi’s owner surfaces: ‘I was in car but not driving’

GHAZIABAD: Manish Rawat, the doctor whose Audi was involved in the January 28 accident in Ghaziabad that led to the death of four people, surfaced at Indirapuram police station on Sunday night after staying under the radar since the crash.
In his statement to the police, Rawat claimed he was in the Audi Q7 at the time of the accident but was not driving, and had fled because he got scared as “a crowd had started gathering”.The accident, though, happened a few minutes past midnight when there aren’t too many people on the road.
Rawat said it was Ishaq Ahmad, his driver, who was at the wheel when the Audi collided with an auto on Hindon Canal Road in Indirapuram. Later, Rawat also shared with TOI a photo of his driver. It was of the same man who residents of Peer Bohra village in Bareilly know as Syed Imtiyaz Qadri, strengthening the suspicion that Qadri is an impostor and has stolen Ishaq Ahmad’s identity.
The photograph shared by Rawat also matches the one obtained and published by TOI of Qadri from Bareilly police. Rawat insisted he knew this man as Ishaq Ahmad.
On February 2, a man calling himself Ishaq Ahmad had made an appearance before a Ghaziabad court, admitted he was driving the Audi and obtained bail. It now appears this was Qadri who had impersonated as Ishaq Ahmad and submitted a copy of Ishaq’s driving licence to court (the photograph on the driving licence is not of Qadri).
The man who claims to be the real Ishaq Ahmad, and whose driving licence has been submitted, is actually a truck driver. On February 3, a day after the alleged impostor got bail in his name, Ishaq was driving his truck on the Bengal-Assam border. When TOI spoke to him, he had said he was in Gujarat on the day of the Audi accident. It was this Ishaq who first pointed the finger at Qadri — incidentally, both live in the same building in Peer Bohar — and suspected Qadri had stolen a copy of his licence and impersonated him.
The photo on the licence submitted is of this Ishaq, who news reporters had caught up with and interviewed in Assam on February 4 after TOI’s exclusive report first raised the possibility of an identity theft.
But Rawat’s statement also raises a bigger question — that the identity theft might have started much before the day of the court appearance. “I have known Ishaq Ahmad for one and a half years, from the time I was posted in Bareilly and sought his service when I shifted to Vasundhara (Olive County) about a month ago.”
Can it then be assumed that Qadri has been using Ishaq’s identity for a long time? Or is there more to this than meets the eye? That is now an investigation for the police, which has so far shown little desire in getting to the bottom of the mystery. Ishaq’s family, meanwhile, said it will file a police case against Qadri for identity theft.
As for Rawat, he visited Indirapuram police station on Sunday night and gave his statement to a magistrate on Monday morning. So far, there is no case against him. Asked why it took him so long to surface, Rawat, a neuro-surgeon at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, told this paper, “Immediately after the accident, my driver Ishaq fled the scene. Since a crowd had started gathering, I feared for my life and fled too, leaving behind the car.” He denied he had gone into hiding and claimed he had been cooperating with the police. Police, however, had issued a notice to Rawat to appear before them and maintained all along they had not been able to trace him.
Speaking about the accident, Rawat said, “I was sitting on navigator’s seat while the car was being driven by my driver Ishaq Ahmad. Shortly after midnight, while we were on Hindon Canal Road, we met with the accident when an auto coming from opposite direction collided head on with my car.”
Rawat evaded questions on his driver’s identity. “The matter is before court and I would not like to speak on this but one thing I would like to clarify that the photograph of the driver on the driving licence that was published in the newspaper is not my driver.” Asked how an impostor might have passed off as Ishaq for so long, and whether he had seen the licence his driver carried, Rawat said, “I had checked his driving licence but it did not occur to me that the photograph on the licence was of someone else.”
To another question whether he was contemplating legal action against his driver, Rawat remained non-committal.
Police said they are waiting for the real Ishaq to show up and will question Rawat after that. They also said there were discrepancies in his statement.
“Whatever Manish Rawat has said in the statement will be verified. Only after the real Ishaq files a case will we speed up the investigation and that will include thorough questioning of Rawat,” said Ghaziabad SSP Deepak Kumar. “Prima facie, it appears Rawat’s statement has some discrepancies, like he said he fled when a crowd started gathering but the fact is that no eyewitness has come forward so far,” Kumar said. “The second point is that ideally, we do not expect a doctor to run away, leaving behind accident victims.”