LAHORE – A 45-year-old gardener died and another wounded seriously after the relative of an influential man ran his car over them when they were busy their work at a footpath in the Defense-B Area, police sources said on Friday.
The youth, later identified Muhammad Awais, was driving his vehicle rashly in the posh locality on early Friday when suddenly he lost his control over the car and it smashed into the gardeners near Wateen Chowk in the Defense-B police area.
As a result, Amanat Ali, 45, died on the spot while his colleague, Kabul, sustained multiple injuries and was rushed to a local hospital in serious condition. The passersby and the motorists managed to capture the boy when he tried to escape from the crime scene after the deadly accident. The youth, Awais, was handed over to the police for interrogation.  The police instead of taking legal action against the driver gave him full protocol in the police station as the police investigators came to known that the ‘killer car-rider’ belonged to an influential family.
Interestingly, the relatives of the deceased, under duress, declined to get an FIR registered against, Awais, said to be a close relative of former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Habibur Rehman. It was also learnt that the local police pressed the victim families hard to reconcile the issue.
A source in the police said that the victim family was left with no other choice but to sign the settlement papers to receive the dead body. Ultimately, the police handed over the body to the deceased’s family soon after they signed the papers as per their conditions. The poor families also refused to get an FIR registered against the criminal. “We have released the boy as the victim families were not willing to initiate legal action against the car driver,” Shafaaqat Ali, an on-duty officer at the Defense-B police station said, when contacted.
Station House officer, Sub Inspector Muhammad Raza denied that the car-rider was a close relative of the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Muhammad Habib-ur-Rehman. “The father of Awais runs garments business in the Azam Cloth Market in Lahore and he is not the relatives of the retired IGP” the SHO said. The police officer also claimed that the victim families announced pardon for the car-rider willingly and not under duress. “When the victims are not willing to file an application for legal action what the police can do in the case?” questioned the SHO.
However, a police source also revealed that the influential family paid some money to the poor families after they signed the settlement papers in the police station.  In another accident, a 13-year-old girl was killed in the Manga Mandi area on Friday.
Police said that a car-rider, Akhtar, along with his wife, Khurshid Bibi, daughter, Rubina, and brother, Afzal, was coming to Lahore when a recklessly driven truck smashed into their car near Mohlanwal in the vicinity of Manga Mandi police.  As a result, all the four family members sustained severe injuries and were rushed to a local hospital, where Rubina was pronounced as dead. The police are investigating.
Meanwhile, a rashly-driven van crushed a man to death near the Choburji crossing on Friday. Police said that the man, identified as Mehdi Hassan, was crossing a road near Choburji when the van ran over him. The man received serious injuries and was rushed to a local hospital, where expired later. The deceased was said to be a labourer and resident of Okara district. The police removed the body to the morgue and are investigating.