Bhubaneswar: Police have arrested the owner of the Thar SUV involved in the Patrapada hit-and-run incident in the city that claimed the lives of an eight-year-old girl and her mother.

Investigators revealed that the tragic incident stemmed from a reckless street race carried out while recording reels for social media.

The accident occurred on the evening of August 9 near the V2 showroom in Patrapada, when Reshma Roul, her mother Revati, and younger brother Mahi were crossing the road after getting down from a bus. A speeding Thar, racing with a Scorpio SUV along NH-16, mowed them down. Both died due to the road mishap.

Police said the SUVs were being driven at dangerous speeds to shoot videos for social media reels. “The craze for reels and racing led to this unfortunate loss of innocent lives,” Zone-3 ACP Tapas Chandra Pradhan said.

Earlier, four accused linked to the case had been arrested. Today, police arrested Thar owner Somanath Behera, who had been absconding, from Puri.

Another accused, Sandeep Naskar, was also arrested for sheltering Behera. With this, the total number of arrests in the case has risen to six.

Police have issued a strong warning against filming reels while driving or engaging in street racing.

The incident had triggered public outrage in Patrapada and Phuleswari Basti, with residents staging road blockades demanding justice for the victims. The father of the deceased girl, Manas Roul, is a home guard working as a driver in the Commissionerate Police.