Thane, Oct 22 (IANS): Abhijeet Suresh Nair, the prime accused-absconder in the sensational Thane hit-and-run case of October 21, surrendered before the Naupada Police Station after remaining on the run for 24 hours, officials said here on Tuesday.

According to an official, the accused along with a lawyer, reached by a cab to the Thane Police Commissionerate office which directed him to the Naupada Police Station where he gave himself up this evening.

Nair, who was reportedly drunk and driving a second-hand Mercedes car said to be around 15 years old, rammed into a 21-year-old youth, Darshan Shashidhar Hegde, who was driving home on a scooter after buying some food from a restaurant near the Thane Railway station.

After the fatal knock, Nair had abandoned his car to catch a cab and fled from the spot and the Naupada Police teams have been on the lookout for him since yesterday, Naupada Police Station Senior Police Inspector Shailesh Salvi told media on Tuesday.

The incident which sparked outrage in different quarters, took place barely a stone’s throw away from the private residence of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the police spurred into action, scanning CCTVs in the vicinity and questioning local witnesses.

Police said that the deceased victim Hegde had gone out on a friend’s scooter to buy some food from a Chinese eatery near the Thane Railway station around 2 am after his daylong fast.

After picking up the food packets, he was driving home on his scooter via the busy Mumbai-Nashik Highway when the speeding Mercedes rammed into him from the rear.

Hegde was knocked down and sustained serious injuries, while Nair panicked and fled from the scene in a cab.

Locals and police rushed Hegde to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwe where he was declared dead on admission.

His anxious family at home tried to call him up several times but he didn’t answer his call for over an hour.

Later, the police informed his brother Shashank Hegde about the tragic accident, while the deceased boy’s friend D. J. Thakkar, who owned the scooter, lodged a police complaint.

Hegde was a student of BSc and hoped to become an engineer, and was a good scooter driver till he was snuffed out by the speeding Mercedes.