Couple chases down man who ran away from the police jeep

Vadodara: It was a chase right out of a racy action movie. The protagonists here was a couple from the city, who launched themselves into a nailbiting 45 minutes chase to catch a man they saw jump out of a police van on Old Padra Road.
It was a normal day for Apsara Iyengar and her fiance Dilpesh Patel who were on way to Jetalpur Road from Gotri until they reached the Bird Circle on Sunday afternoon.
“When we reached near Bird Circle in our car, we saw three men jump off a police jeep. While two of them were immediately caught by the cops, one managed to flee. Dilpesh asked me if we should chase him and I immediately said yes,” said Apsara, who runs a theatre group in the city. As the man ran in the lane opposite Shiv Mahal Palace on the Old Padra Road, the couple stopped the car and Dilpesh got down and began chasing him on foot.
“The man ran into the lanes and then headed towards the revenue colony. I followed him in there but he entered a building. When I got into the building, the man jumped off the third floor or got down by some pipe and again began running away,” Dilpesh said. The couple again got into the car and began chasing him inside the revenue colony.
“Dilpesh then got down and began looking for him. He finally saw the man hiding in a big VMC dustbin. He was asked to come out and Dilpesh then pinned him down. The cops arrived as I had dialled up the police control room. The police took the man away in his vehicle and soon after we left,” Apsara told TOI.
Dilpesh also suffered minor injuries on his hand.
Interestingly, while Apsara has narrated the entire incident on her Facebook account, the city police have denied that any such incident happened. “Our Gotri police inspector inquired into the matter and said that a police team from some other district had come to the city and lost their way. They stopped near the Bird Circle to ask for an address but some labourers there thought that the cops had come to nab them,” said Anupam Singh Gahlaut, city police commissioner.
“One of them then jumped into a dustbin to hide and was later caught by the two citizens,” Gahlaut added.
The man, whom the couple caught, has been identified as Shana Raulji who is an auto-driver. The police said that their investigations showed that Shana had no criminal background. The cops said that no such incident of any accused fleeing from police custody had happened but they also praised the couple for their alertness.