Raghib Parvez, who has become the prime accused in Friday night’s car crash that left two people dead, after being identified as the person who was at the wheel of the Jaguar F-PACE that crashed into the Mercedes Benz at the Shakespeare Sarani-Loudon Street crossing, was not alone in the car, police said today.

Raghib who was remanded in police custody for 12 days today by the Bankshal Court, was accompanied by a friend ~ who the officers of the detective department did not wish to name today ~ in the car when the collision and the subsequent deaths of the two Bangladeshi nationals had taken place.

The duo, said the officer at Lalbazar, had gone to attend the birthday party bash of the son of the principal of St James School, held at the compound of the school on Friday night.

Raghib, who had set out from his Syed Amir Ali Avenue residence at around 11.30 p.m in his Jaguar F-PACE for the St James destination had reportedly received a call on his mobile from his friend after the party ended.

Preliminary interrogation of the prime accused indicated that Raghib, during the phone conversation, agreed to pick up the friend at Park Street. Accordingly, he had set out towards Park Street.

The route he had allegedly taken to pick up his friend had matched the CCTV footages, which had shown the Jaguar had jumped the traffic lights at least thrice while coming to the Shakespeare Sarani- Loudon street crossing, where Raghib crashed the Jaguar into the Mercedes Benz, which subsequently killed two Bangladeshi bystanders.

After the incident, the duo were seen on CCTV footage, fleeing the spot abandoning the car.

While Raghib was seen running along the pavement, his friend was seen boarding an app cab. Raghib, according to police, may have had a drug habit, though this is yet to be verified. He is said to have been in a rehabilitation centre for three years, though, again, police are yet to verify it.

A senior officer of the homicide wing of the detective department of the city police said that though they are yet to verify the speed of the car from the Events Data Recorder (EDR) retrieved from the car, he is certain that the car was running at a speed of 150 kmph.

Meanwhile, Arsalan Parvez (21), Raghib’s younger brother, along with their maternal uncle Md Hamza, who had allegedly chalked out a plan to send Raghib to Dubai while Arsalan surrendered to police as the key accused, were granted conditional bail under Section 201 of the IPC for Arsalan and under Sections 201 and 212 for Hamza respectively.

Both were asked to deposit their passports with the Investigation Officer (IO) of the case and present themselves when required. The city police had in a startling revelation yesterday said that it was Raghib Parvez and not Parvez Arsalan, who was at the wheel of the Jaguar when the accident took place on Friday. Raghib Parvez and Parvez Arsalan are the sons of the owner of the well known Arsalan chain of biryani restaurants in the city.