The discovery of a 25-year-old man’s body seated in an upright position in a tempo near Motilal Nagar junction on Tuesday led Goregaon cops to a day-long wild goose chase. At the culmination of their investigations, it was revealed that the deceased — Golu Devidas Gawai — had been run over by a motorcyclist and a tempo driver, who were then told by a traffic constable to rush him to hospital. When Gawai died on the way, the two errant drivers panicked, abandoned the tempo with the body in it, and absconded.

Mowed down
Around 5.30 pm on Monday, the deceased Gawai was walking near Milind Nagar, Powai, when he was hit by a speeding motorcyclist from behind. Gawai fell down, and within seconds was mowed down by a tempo, which dragged him for a distance of 15 feet. Traffic constable Shivnath Masal, who saw the incident, intercepted the motorcycle and the tempo. He confiscated the licences of the bike rider N Badani and the tempo driver Sushilkumar Pandey, and asked them to rush Gawai to a nearby hospital. As they sped towards the hospital, the two realised that Gawai had succumbed to his injuries. Panicking, the duo abandoned Gawai’s body in the tempo near the Motilal Nagar junction in Goregaon (West).u00a0While Badani went into hiding at his residence, Pandey called up his boss Yadav, and fled. On Tuesday, Goregaon cops received a phone call from locals who had discovered a tempo, with a bruised and battered body inside it, in a seated position.