A 53-year-old head constable was killed when a speeding car hit an iron barricade, which flew and hit the policeman, dislocating his neck and killing him on the spot in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka in the early hours of Tuesday, police said.

Another policeman standing behind the head constable survived the crash as he jumped onto the pavement on the last second. The errant car driver fled the accident spot with the car so quickly that other policemen at the scene could not see the make or note down the vehicle’s registration number, police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse said the accused, 33-year-old Nagesh Kapoor, was arrested in the afternoon after the police recovered his damaged grey Maruti Baleno sedan from a car repair shop in Pochanpur village. Police said a mechanic at the repair shop informed the police about the damaged car.

An MBA graduate from a university in Saharanpur, Kapoor works as an accountant in a motorcycle showroom in Mayapuri.

Police said they are waiting for Kapoor’s medical examination report to ascertain whether he was drunk at the time of the mishap.

The dead policeman was identified as Guljari Lal, a native of Rajasthan’s Jaipur. Lal was posted at the Dwaka Sector-23 police station. He is survived by his wife and three children — two sons and a daughter — in Delhi’s Najafgarh.

Lal was posted on vehicle checking duty at a picket near Dwarka Sector-21 underpass between 8pm till 5am along with twocolleagues—headconstables Prakash Chand Meena and Sri Ram – and a Delhi home guard, Babloo.

The police officers were conducting vehicle checks on the carriageway going towards Dwarka from Kapashera. They had put two iron barricades on the road in a zig-zag pattern in order to slow down vehicles for checking. Similar arrangements were made on the opposite carriageway by Ram and Babloo, said police.

Police said the police personnel were wearing florescent jacket and the barricades had reflector tape and blinkers. The area around the picket was also properly illuminated. Lal and Meena were standing behind the barricades.

In his complaint, head constable Meena said around 1am they spotted a sedan approaching the picket at a high speed. He signalled the car driver to stop by waiving a torch.

“The car did not stop and instead rammed the barricade, which flung the barricade into the air and it hit Lal in his face. He was standing around 8-to-10 feet

behind. The impact was so strong that Lal’s neck was dislocated. He also suffered injuries on his face, head and around the neck. We think he died on the spot,” said a police officer, quoting Meena’s statement.

Meena said he jumped onto the pavement at the last second to avoid meeting the same fate as Lal. The car, which was allegedly speeding, drove off immediately after the crash. The policemen stopped a passing car and rushed Lal to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.

A case of rash driving causing death was registered against unknown person.

Police said it was initially a blind case as no details related to the vehicle could be recorded at the time of the accident. They activated their human intelligence network and circulated a message regarding the accident to various RWAS and sought their assistance in identifying the vehicle involved in the mishap.

“We also alerted service centres, mechanics, hospitals, and insurance companies. Around noon, a car repair shop mechanic from Pochanpur village alerted about a damaged Baleno sedan that had come into his shot for repair. We caught the car owner, Nagesh Kapoor, and arrested him after his involvement in the mishap was confirmed,” the officer added.

Police said Kapoor told them that he was returning home after partying with his three friends in Gurugram. “He panicked after seeing the policemen on the road and hit the barricade in a bid to escape. Kapoor had purchased the car eight months ago from a used car sale purchase shop in Gurugram,” added the officer.

First Published: Jan 09, 2019 09:06 IST