Finally, twenty-year-old truck driver arrested

CHANDIGARH: Six days after five persons sleeping on the pavement in the Transport Area, Sector 26, were mowed down by a truck, the UT police today arrested the 20-year-old driver of the truck, Sarma Chaudhary, a resident of Khalwatola village, Nabalour, in Bettiah district of Bihar, for committing five murders.

Accused Sarma Chaudhary (in blue shirt) and truck cleaner Ajay Kumar in police custody at the Sector 26 police station in Chandigarh on Saturday. A Tribune Photograph

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 22

Six days after five persons sleeping on the pavement in the Transport Area, Sector 26, were mowed down by a truck, the UT police today arrested the 20-year-old driver of the truck, Sarma Chaudhary, a resident of Khalwatola village, Nabalour, in Bettiah district of Bihar, for committing five murders.

The accused, who admitted that he was drunk at that time, confessed to his crime following his arrest today and stated that he actually came with the intention of killing someone else with whom he had a scuffle that night. He expressed shock at the fact that the persons with whom he had a violent scuffle after they objected to him urinating in a public place were alive and the five persons who were actually killed by him had nothing to do with the scuffle and were unknown to him.

Sarma told the police that he was rebuked by some labourers on that night as he was urinating at the public place when he got into a scuffle with them. On the night of August 16, Sarma was accompanied by truck cleaner Ajay. Some of the workers from Rajasthan, including one Kidaar, entered into a scuffle with the two of them at the Transport Area during which Sarma was beaten up, said the police.

The accused admitted that he was heavily drunk and then returned late that night in his truck with the intention to avenge his insult. Kidaar, whom Sarma wanted to kill, was sleeping at some distance from the park on another pavement and some other persons (who were actually killed) were sleeping on the pavement in the parking lot of the office of the Chandigarh Transport Association.

Sarma ran over the truck on the sleeping workers thinking they were Kidaar and his associates who had a scuffle with him and had beaten him up. In a fit of rage, he mowed down four residents of Nagaur in Rajasthan who were sleeping in one line on the pavement. These four were later identified as Jassu Ram, his son Naatu, his son-in-law Jagdish and Jassu’s cousin Sardara Ram. While Ajay was beaten up by the locals and arrested immediately, Sarma Chaudhary managed to flee the spot. Sarma was today summoned by his employer, Sunil Sharma of Zamindara Transports. Sharma told Sarma that his (Sarma’s) presence was needed to release the vehicle, so when he came, he was arrested by the police.