Kolkata: Biryani brothers give new spin to Jaguar case, now elder held

KOLKATA: The Jaguar-Mercedes crash that killed two Bangladeshi tourists on Shakespeare Sarani early on Saturday morning had a dramatic twist on Wednesday with one Biryani Brother replacing another as the prime accused.
Cops claimed it was elder brother Raghib Parwez, and not younger brother Arsalan Parwez, who was at the wheel of the Jaguar that crashed into the Mercedes at the Shakespeare Sarani-Loudon Street crossing, sending the latter careening into three bystanders, killing two of them and injuring another, apart from those inside the Mercedes.The brothers are scions of the Beckbagan-based family that runs Arsalan, one of Kolkata’s most popular biryani and Mughlai cuisine chains.

Raghib, who had fled to Dubai, returned on Monday and was arrested from a nursing home near Park Circus on Wednesday. Family members said the younger brother had initially taken the blame out of love for Raghib, but the latter could not bear to see his brother arrested for a crime he didn’t commit and so returned to surrender.
Around noon on Saturday, Arsalan had turned himself in, telling cops that he was driving the Jaguar. That very evening, Raghib took a flight to Dubai. According to police, he returned on Monday and got himself admitted to the nursing home. The cops are now probing whether there was a second person in the car when it met with the accident.
According to the investigators, Raghib saw the two bystanders getting killed in the accident and fled the spot. He ran to Mullick Bazaar and called up his maternal uncle, Md Hamza, who rushed over from his Broad Street home and picked up Raghib 20 minutes after the accident (around 2.10am). They then drove to a safe house in Salt Lake. He took an evening flight to Dubai. Hamza has also been arrested.
Joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma said they had initial doubts when investigators noticed no injury marks on Arsalan despite the high-speed crash that had smashed the front portion of the Jaguar and deployed airbags. “An airbag inflates at very high speed and smashes into the face, leaving a mark similar to a sunburn. There was no such mark on Arsalan’s face,” said Sharma. Arsalan was also vague about the route he had taken prior to the accident, firming their suspicion that he was not even in the car.
Images from 45 CCTV cameras help cops
The car’s infotainment and telematics data system — which records the mobile number of those who pair their phones — had Raghib’s number logged in when the crash took place. Arsalan’s mobile number also showed that he was not out driving that night.
The cops then used Raghib’s phone number to trace his movement on the night leading to the accident. They also used the car’s GPS system to trace his journey from the house to the accident spot and matched it with the mobile location of Raghib’s phone. “We got a perfect match,” Sharma said.
Simultaneously, cops scanned CCTV footage from 45 cameras between Shakespeare Sarani and Mullick the Bazaar crossing and found that the face of the youth fleeing matched that of Raghib. The footage available from the Bhagirathi Neotia Woman & Child Care Centre was very clear and recorded an 85% match with Raghib’s WhatsApp profile picture. Ironically, it was the CCTV footage from the Parwez family residence that proved to be the final piece of evidence. It clearly showed that it was Raghib who had left home in the Jaguar at 11.30pm on Friday.
Armed with all this evidence, the cops confronted Arsalan and his parents. The youth was the first to break down, admitting that he was nowhere near the car that night. The family claimed they were in shock and had not been able to contact Raghib who, according to them, had acted on his own and kept them in the dark.
“They told us that they had sent Arsalan to confess to the crime to put pressure on Raghib to surface and own up,” an officer said. Raghib flew back to Kolkata on Monday and got admitted to a nursing home on Circus Avenue. When cops confronted Raghib on Wednesday afternoon, he did not resist. According to police, the facial burn marks and elbow injury were consistent with what he could have suffered in the accident.
The entire family is now under the scanner for allegedly harbouring Raghib and attempting to mislead the cops.
“Everyone’s role and motive is in question. The explanation by the family does not appear foolproof. We will interrogate Raghib and all family members,” said Sharma. Sources said two angles were primarily being probed: whether Raghib was drunk, and fled fearing harsher charges; and whether he had acted on his own, keeping his family in the dark.
CP Anuj Sharma said the case was transferred to the DD once the needle of suspicion pointed towards the elder brother. “The DD team gathered evidence based on scientific tools and we were able to take the culprit into custody,” said Sharma, congratulating the team.
Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, during an administrative review meeting in Digha, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said: “Very often, it is being noticed that one driver has caused an accident, while another person is surrendering before police.”