Joyride that killed 4: How broken Mercedes logo, CCTV helped crack Dehradun accident case

DEHRADUN: During initial investigation into the accident on Dehradun's Rajpur Road that killed four labourers and injured two others, police had little info to identify the offending vehicle or the accused, but they soon got a solid lead after they found a broken Mercedes logo at the scene.
Eyewitnesses later confirmed that the car was registered in Chandigarh, prompting police to review footage from automated number plate recognition cameras. They narrowed their search to nine Chandigarh-registered Mercedes cars that had passed through the area in the past four days.

SSP Dehradun Ajai Singh said, "We verified the ownership details of all nine vehicles and then checked with the local Mercedes showroom and service centre in the city. Our reasoning was that if the car was being used in Dehradun, its owner might have visited for service. We had asked the service centre to remain open late at night, and as luck would have it, we got to know about a car serviced there in Nov last year."
Further verification confirmed that the car matched eyewitness descriptions and was registered with the sector-17 Chandigarh RTO. During the probe, police found the vehicle abandoned on a vacant plot, its front side damaged — raising suspicion.
"Using a Chandigarh contact number found in the showroom's records, a police team headed to that city to get more details about the owner. We found that the car was first purchased by a Chandigarh-based automobile dealer in Feb 2023, and sold to a pre-owned automobile dealer in Delhi in June. In July, Jitendra Prasad Verma, the accused's brother-in-law, a Dehradun-based farming business owner, bought the vehicle for Rs 95 lakh," Singh said.
Following this lead, police tracked down Verma, who admitted to lending the car to 22-year-old accused, Vansh Katyal, on Wednesday from his office. "With all the inputs, the probe team finally located the vehicle abandoned on a vacant plot," Singh said, adding that technology played a crucial role in identifying and tracking the suspect.
Dehradun: During initial investigation into the accident on Dehradun's Rajpur Road that killed four labourers and injured two others, police had little info to identify the offending vehicle or the accused, but they soon got a solid lead after they found a broken Mercedes logo at the scene.
Eyewitnesses later confirmed that the car was registered in Chandigarh, prompting police to review footage from automated number plate recognition cameras. They narrowed their search to nine Chandigarh-registered Mercedes cars that had passed through the area in the past four days.
SSP Dehradun Ajai Singh said, "We verified the ownership details of all nine vehicles and then checked with the local Mercedes showroom and service centre in the city. Our reasoning was that if the car was being used in Dehradun, its owner might have visited for service. We had asked the service centre to remain open late at night, and as luck would have it, we got to know about a car serviced there in Nov last year."
Further verification confirmed that the car matched eyewitness descriptions and was registered with the sector-17 Chandigarh RTO. During the probe, police found the vehicle abandoned on a vacant plot, its front side damaged — raising suspicion.
"Using a Chandigarh contact number found in the showroom's records, a police team headed to that city to get more details about the owner. We found that the car was first purchased by a Chandigarh-based automobile dealer in Feb 2023, and sold to a pre-owned automobile dealer in Delhi in June. In July, Jitendra Prasad Verma, the accused's brother-in-law, a Dehradun-based farming business owner, bought the vehicle for Rs 95 lakh," Singh said.
Following this lead, police tracked down Verma, who admitted to lending the car to 22-year-old accused, Vansh Katyal, on Wednesday from his office. "With all the inputs, the probe team finally located the vehicle abandoned on a vacant plot," Singh said, adding that technology played a crucial role in identifying and tracking the suspect.