Dumper fugitive’s act continues to fox police, WCL officials

“But for the Gorakhpur theory, he has not given any convincing reply,” the officer said, adding that all Shankar had been saying was that he was going through some family disturbance probably aggravated by his prolonged absence from duty without pay. “Right now, we are taking him to the court and hope things will become clear during interrogation,” he added.

Prima facie theft has been ascertained as the motive as the WCL authorities have lodged a complaint, accusing Shankar of taking the dumper out of the workshop without authority. Police were also planning to seek a medical opinion to ascertain whether Shankar was mentally sound.

That he could drive the 35-tonner heavy duty vehicle — not used on normal road conditions — for more than 100 km, indicates that he was not mentally unstable, they say. The question, however, remains over the way he drove uncontrolled at a stretch — breaking barriers at a couple of railway crossings on way and hitting a State Transport bus, two jeeps, three matadors, two scooters and two mobikes.

The impact of the dash by the dumper could be gauged from the fact it pushed back the ST bus, coming from the opposite direction, a considerable distance before the rear of the bus crashed into three shops, causing considerable damage.

It was a scene straight out of a Hindi potboiler, as angry victims, people and police chased the dumper for quite a distance. In between, police fired 17 rounds to deflate the tyres but the specially made tubeless tyres were hard enough to get penetrated by the bullets. As luck would have it, one of the wheels got stuck while passing a narrow bridge near Sitasavangi mines and broke away, providing a chance for police to overpower Shankar.

“Had he fallen into the hands of people, Shankar would have been lynched. We had a real tough time, taking him to Bhandara without the people coming to know about it,” the officer said.

Authoritative sources at the WCL headquarters told The Indian Express that Shankar was taken on the job on compassionate grounds since his father, also a dumper operator, was not keeping well. Last year, he was taken on the training course for dumper operators and he was not authorised to operate the dumper unless accompanied by a senior operator.

Since June, he had not reported on duty and did not even contact his seniors. Over a month back, the WCL management had served a chargesheet on Shankar but the same had remained unanswered. Last week, when Shankar made a sudden appearance to report on duty, he was asked to reply the chargesheet first.

“It is difficult to say right now what could be the motive,” Director (Personnel) J N Singh observed while saying that being the son of an ex-employee, Shankar was quite familiar to security staff at the workshop as also other staffers.

This could also be the reason why not many suspected his intention when he got into the dumper which is normally parked at the workshop by the end of one shift for refuelling and other maintenance job till the driver for the next shift takes charge. Even while doing so, he has to take instructions from authorities like assistant manager, shift in-charge or foreman for the day’s work.

Alarm bells started ringing when the security realised that instead of passing through the main entrance and hitting the road to the mines at Kamptee as usual, he drove to the rear side and crashed through the Nehru Hospital gates heading straight for Nagpur-Jabalpur National Highway.

This set off the chase, first by security and authorities till Tumsar where police joined the action.

Singh, however, avoided commenting on whether Shankar was scheduled for a morning shift duty. “We have sought a detailed report from the office of the Kamptee Sub Area Manager,” he insisted.