Ankit Gulati, a senior employee and an RJ with a radio station, was arrested from his home. Ankit Gulati, a senior employee and an RJ with a radio station, was arrested from his home.

Out of 22,000 black Creta SUVs sold across Delhi-NCR last year, police were looking for one with a number plate that ended with 6. The search ended on Friday when the car was traced to Patel Nagar, and its driver Ankit Gulati (34), a senior employee and an RJ with a radio station, was arrested for an alleged hit-and-run near Hotel Le Meridien on June 30.

“The incident took place early morning and we scanned through footage of 10 CCTVs, including the one we got from Le Meridien hotel in which the incident can be seen… the number of the car was not clear in any of the footage,” DCP (New Delhi) Madhur Verma said. The incident left Dheeraj Kumar (37), who was travelling on a scooter, dead.

From the accident spot, police recovered only a portion of the SUV’s bumper, and when it was sent to Hyundai’s main manufacturing unit, the barcode on the bumper gave the first clue.

“The car company said that as per the barcode, the car was issued either on March 13 or March 17 last year, and could have been sold through six specific agencies in Haryana and Delhi,” Verma said.

In the last year, 22,000 black Cretas have been sold in Delhi-NCR. We zeroed it down to 300 sold from those six agencies,” he added. Meanwhile, footage was shared with a scientist at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad.

“The CFSL official told us its a Delhi number plate that says ‘DL’, and the last digit is ‘6’. That narrowed down the number of cars we were looking at to less than 10,” said Verma.

At all homes, the car was present, while at Gulati’s home in Patel Nagar, the car was missing.

“His parents told us that the car had met with a slight accident and was at a service centre in Moti Nagar,” Verma said.

We took down Ankit’s phone number and scanned through his call records around 5.30 am on June 30, and we found that he was near Hotel Le Meridien, which confirmed that he was the accused,” the DCP added.

On Saturday morning, Gulati was arrested from his house in Patel Nagar and a case under IPC section 304A (causing death by negligence) was registered against him at Parliament Street police station. According to police, Gulati said during questioning that on the night of June 29, he went to Roar club at the Inter Continental Eros hotel in Nehru Place, followed by the Playboy Club at Hotel Samrat in Chanakyapuri, and left from there around 5.15 am for Agni, a club at The Park Hotel.

“He said he consumed alcohol at all these places and that while driving to the The Park Hotel, he was distracted by his phone and hit Kumar’s two-wheeler,” Verma said

“For two days, he kept the car hidden at home, and then sent it for repair to a service centre in Moti Nagar on July 1. He kept going to work as he did not want anyone to doubt that something was wrong,” he added.

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