PONDA: In a horrific hit-and-run accident at Par-Khandepar on Thursday, a 10-wheeler interstate truck crashed into a pedestrian and drove over his head. The victim was left decapitated. To the horror of witnesses, his head landed a kilometer away from the site.
Police said the driver was not aware of the fatality, and that the head of the deceased must have got stuck in a gap between the tyres.The head fell onto the road at Dhatwada-Usgao, near the MRF factory. The truck driver learnt about the accident only after police traced the vehicle parked inside the Usgao rubber factory campus. Witnesses told police that they saw the truck hit the pedestrian, who was crossing the road.
The deceased has been identified as Anand Dharma Naik, 57, a resident of Mharvapaz-Usgao in Ponda.
Ponda police said that it was initially a blank hitand-run case. However, police succeeded in tracking the vehicle after examining CCTV footage. The footage showed the truck entering the rubber factory gate. The truck was delivering rubber to the tyre factory via Ponda.
The accident, which took place in the afternoon, was so horrific that the crushed body of the deceased was lying at Par-Khandepar, and the disfigured head on the road at Usgao, leaving passersby horrified.
Ponda police have arrested truck driver Dhanna Nath Jogi, 66, a resident of Udaipur, Rajasthan, and the truck has been seized. Police have retrieved the mutilated body and preserved it at the South Goa district hospital, Margao, for an autopsy likely to be conducted on Friday.
Police have filed a case against the driver under Section 279 and 304-A of the IPC. PSI Yogesh Gaonkar is investigating under the super vision of Ponda PI Tushar Lotlikar.