The Haryana Police have found a partially consumed bottle of alcohol in the vehicle which actor Deep Sidhu was driving when he met with a fatal accident on Tuesday evening, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.
Sonipat Superintendent of Police Rahul Sharma, however, added that it has not been confirmed yet if Sidhu had consumed the alcohol.
The 37-year-old actor was killed after his car rammed into a stationary truck near the Pipli toll plaza on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway around 8.30 pm on Tuesday. He was travelling with his friend Reena Rai from New Delhi to Punjab. Rai survived the accident.
Sharma said that the police have identified the truck driver and the process to arrest him was underway. The police official said that that truck driver has been booked for rash driving and causing death by negligence, based on a complaint by Sidhu’s brother Surjeet.
“Neither the parking lights of the said truck were visible and...it was dark,” Sidhu’s brotherSurjeet said in his complaint, according to India Today. “It was a complete act of negligence on the part of the driver of the truck due to which the car hit the truck and as a result of which my brother sustained multiple fatal injuries.”
Sharma said the police are checking with the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation regarding a power cut in the area, which led to the streetlights being off, when the accident took place.
The police are also trying to reconstruct the sequence of events and have found around 25-30 metres long skid marks of tyres, where the accident took place, according to the The Indian Express. The police believe the tyre marks were of Sidhu’s vehicle.
Meanwhile, a post-mortem examination of the actor was conducted on Wednesday, after which his body was handed over to his family, ANI reported. According to Sharma, Sidhu’s family left for Ludhiana with the body to conduct the last rites.
Sidhu was one of the accused persons in the case related to the violence at the Red Fort in New Delhi on January 26, 2021, during a tractor rally protest against the three farm laws that have now been repealed.
On that day, farmers protesting against the three agriculture laws held a tractor march to Delhi. Deviating from the official route for the tractor rally, a section of the protesters gathered at the Red Fort and hoisted flags on the monument, leading to clashes with the police.
Farmers’ bodies had blamed Sidhu and gangster-turned-activist Lakha Sidhana for the violence. Two first information reports had been filed against Sidhu in relation to the matter.
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