'Driver picked up without info'

CHANDIGARH: The family of Sukhwinder Singh, alias Billa, who drove Sumit Prakash Verma to PGI on the fateful day on November 3, claimed that Intelligence Bureau (IB) picked him up without any warning.
Billa was driving the car in which Verma, who met a tragic end when he could not reach PGI on time allegedly due to Prime Minister���s security cover, was travelling.
Apart from Chandigarh police, the Intelligence Bureau is conducting an inquiry into the incident.
Sources said an IB team picked up Billa from Ambala on Friday and brought him to Chandigarh for recording his statement. The driver was later handed over to UT police for reconstruction of events. SP (operations) Rajinder Singh Ghuman said Billa took around 30-31 minutes to reach PGI emergency from Sector 35-based Inderjit Charitable Hospital.
He said Sector-35 hospital���s doctors had claimed that as Verma was vomiting blood, they asked his family to rush him to PGI or GMCH-32. The hospital also claimed that no ambulance was available at the time, he added.
The deceased���s nephew, Dhiraj Verma, said, ���IB picked the driver without informing anybody. Sukhwinder is under so much pressure that he has refused to talk.��� He criticized police for asking Billa to reconstruct the sequence of events. ���How can they rebuild the same chaos and elaborate security��� he questioned.
Meanwhile, some Homeguard volunteers and traffic police personnel appointed at PGI roundabout on November 3 were summoned for recording their statements on Saturday.