RAWALPINDI, Dec 18: The driver of the car that crushed five spectators to death at the unauthorised race in Bahria Town early this month surrendered himself to police on Saturday after withdrawing his bail plea.

Rawat police took Majid Naeem into custody after he withdrew bail application from the court of additional district and sessions judge.

On December 5, Mr Naeem’s car went out of control at the drag race held in Phase-VIII of Bahria Town and hit spectators, killing five of them. On December 11, he got a pre-arrest bail.

Judge Chuadhry Aurangzeb dismissed the pre-arrest bail of another accused, Sheikh Atif, one of the organisers, after he and his lawyer did not appear in the court. The court, however, extended the pre-arrest bail of Waleed Khan, marketing manager of Bahria Town, after his lawyer requested that he could not appear on Saturday as he was busy in another case. The fourth accused, Ali Riaz, son of Malik Riaz, chief executive of Bahria Town, has reportedly left the country after the incident.

The Supreme Court, taking a suo motu notice of the car racing tragedy, has ordered probe by a senior police official into it.

Expressing its dissatisfaction over a junior officer investigating “such an important case”, the three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, directed the Punjab’s provincial police officer (PPO) to appoint the regional police officer (RPO) of Rawalpindi to probe the tragic event.