Dehradun, March 1 Police have arrested four men in connection with a crash in the Rajpur Road area here that resulted in the death of a bike taxi passenger, officials said on Sunday.
The accused have been identified as Pranjal Ramola (22), Abhishek Badoni (21), and Lokendra alias Lokesh Bijalwan (22), all residents of Uttarkashi, and Sumit Rathauri (22) from Dehradun.
The incident occurred on Friday night near the Aketa Hotel on Rajpur Road when the accused were allegedly racing and trying to overtake each other at high speeds.
According to the police, the victim, Ankit Pal, was travelling as a passenger on a Rapido bike taxi when the vehicle was hit by two other motorcycles.
The impact caused Pal and the bike taxi rider to fall, resulting in serious injuries. Both were taken to Doon Hospital for treatment, where Pal was pronounced dead on arrival.
Following the incident, a case was registered on Saturday based on a complaint lodged by the victim's mother, Usha Pal.
CCTV footage from the area showed that after the first motorcycle struck the victim's vehicle, a second motorcycle following closely behind ran over him as he lay on the road, the police said.
During interrogation, the accused admitted that they were competing to get ahead of each other, a police officer said, adding that the pillion riders were also found to have been encouraging the riders to increase their speed.
He said that the combination of excessive speed and poor visibility near the hotel led to the fatal crash.
The accused have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and for overspeeding on a busy public road, the officer added.