Kathmandu, November 26

Police have arrested Buddhi Kumar Koju, a driver of a public bus operating from Kathmandu to Baarhaghare of Ramechhap district, in connection with the hit-and-run case that occurred on Sunday morning in Baneshwor, leading to on-the-spot death of 74-year-old doctor Prabhu Prasad Joshi.

Koju, who drives Ba 3 Kha  614 numbered public bus was arrested on the basis of CCTV footage. Police were having hard time identifying the vehicle that had caused the accident as there were no eye-witnesses.

“Given the circumstantial evidences, we have concluded that no other vehicles were responsible for the accident,” DSP Regmi said. He said there were no heavy duty vehicles plying on the particular road at the time of the accident. “In a CCTV footage we can see the doctor crossing the road. At the same time another CCTV footage shows the particular bus moving towards the accident site, and no other heavy duty vehicles were recorded.”

The bus, according to DSP Regmi was empty as it was heading towards Koteshwor to pick up passengers. “We normally see such public vehicles waiting for minimum half an hour at Koteshwor to pick up passengers, but the bus hardly waited for two minutes at Koteshwor and left with just two passengers.” The bus also did not stop at other bus stops which are normally crowded with passengers, according to police.

Police were able to trace the number of the bus from a CCTV footage at Suryabinayak, Bhaktapur. The bus driver Koju, however, has denied the police claim. Police have not traced any kinds of accident marks on the bus.