A speeding truck driver allegedly crushed an 11-year-old girl to death and crashed through police barricades before being arrested after a dramatic 60-km chase in Chhattisgarh, police said on Saturday.
The nearly two-hour-long high-speed chase through Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district on Friday, parts of which went viral on social media, ended just 6 km before the Maharashtra border when the vehicle veered off the road, an official said.
The heavy vehicle hit the victim, Poonam, in Gundardehi village under Ambagarh Chowki police station limits on the Rajnandgaon-Manpur road, killing her on the spot, district’s Additional Superintendent of Police Pitambar Patel said.
The driver, however, did not stop after the accident and sped towards Mohla in an attempt to escape, he said.
On receiving information about the accident, police set up barricades outside the Mohla police station to intercept the truck. But despite police presence, the driver first rammed the rear of a parked truck near the police station, crashed through the barricades and sped towards Manpur, Patel said.
Police teams chased the vehicle while another barricade was erected near the SDM office in Manpur, where he again attempted to evade arrest by driving over the barricades and dragging them for some distance before entering Manpur town, he said.
Police personnel narrowly escaped being hit during the incident, the official said.
The chase ended near Korkotti village, about 6 km before the Maharashtra border, where the truck went out of control and veered off the road, he said.
Police then detained the injured driver, who was allegedly under the influence of alcohol, and shifted him to Manpur hospital for treatment, the official said.
Meanwhile, villagers in Gundardehi staged a road blockade by placing the child’s body on the road, disrupting traffic for nearly two hours. The protest was called off after senior police officials assured them of strict action.
After the post-mortem examination, the body was handed over to the victim’s family, he said.
A case has been registered against the driver, and the truck, with Maharashtra registration, has been seized, the official added.
