'Driver' of killer Audi says he was in Gujarat that day

BAREILLY: “Salaam,” says the man on the phone. “Yes, my name is Ishaq Ahmed . I am about to cross the Bengal border into Assam. I am in my truck. The network is weak and I don’t understand what you are saying.What Audi, what accident? Please explain properly.” The Audi accident case of January 27, in which Safdarjung hospital surgeon Manish Rawat’s Q7 rammed an autorickshaw in Indirapuram, killing four people, has taken a curious turn.Three days after one Ishaq Ahmed from Labheda in Bareilly mysteriously popped up to tell the Ghaziabad magistrate that he was driving the killer SUV, got bail and disappeared, one of the two Ishaq Ahmeds in Labheda told TOI he was in Gujarat on January 27, when the accident took place. “I will go to court myself and charge the man sullying my reputation,” he said, adding that he had never seen the inside of a “luxurious car”. The other Ishaq Ahmed is a labourer who, too, has no idea about the case.But the address is the same as the one furnished in court -Labheda village, Hafizganj police station, Bareilly. In the little cluster, about 30km from Bareilly , very few have heard about the deadly accident. Ishaq, the truck driver, however, says he got a call “from someone“ asking about it.“I drive a truck,“ Ishaq, 32, said. “What will I do with an Audi? I have never met Manish Rawat or heard of him. On the midnight of January 27, when the accident is supposed to have happened, I was in Gujarat. On January 31, when the person impersonating me took all the blame, I was at home.How could I have surrendered in court? Even now, I am travelling and am in Bengal. I will return to Bareilly in a week and find out what is happening. I will go to court myself and charge the man sullying my reputation.“Ishaq's father, farmer Jameel Ahmed , is equally bewildered. “Someone close to our family could have used my son's documents to frame him,“ he said. “Ishaq is a Class III dropout. He has two children -one is seven and the other four. He remarried two years back following the death of his first wife and lives in Peer Bohra village with his in-laws. His kids are with us. Can you give us details of the other Ishaq?“ Kaloo Qureshi, the owner of the truck that Ishaq drives, vouched for his em ployee. “Ishaq has been driving my vehicle for a year. He has never given us any trouble.“ Before Kaloo, Ishaq drove Kaloo's relative Afzal Qureshi's truck. No issues there either.Inspector at Hafizganj police station, Rakam Singh, said, “I have not heard about the Audi-auto accident. No police officer from Noida or Ghaziabad has contacted me regarding the records of Ishaq Ahmed.“Shifting uneasily in her plastic chair that's kept outside the broken wall of their half-built house, Ishaq's mother Shehra Bano said, “Not even an ant has ever come under the wheels of my son's trucks. If his vehicle had met with an accident, he would have informed us. He is a good man, a good father who frequently gives money to us to take care of his children.“