Rajkumar Singh had not realised that his friend Debabrata Singh was in front of the car when he sped off in a bid to flee, police said on Wednesday.

The police claimed they had video-recorded Rajkumar's confession that he had hit his friend by mistake and submitted it to a Barrackpore court on Wednesday.

The court sent Rajkumar to 14 days' judicial custody.

Debabrata, Rajkumar and two others were apparently drinking in a car on a deserted Dum Dum road beside the closed Jessop factory late on Tuesday when cops, thinking them to be criminals, asked them to step out.

When they tried to flee, the police fired in the air to threaten them to stop.

The car stopped and Debabrata and Sanjay Singh stepped out. As the cops were walking towards the car, Rajkumar, who was at the wheel, sped off running Debabrata over, the police said.

"Rajkumar has confessed that he was too drunk to realise that Debabrata was in front of the car. The headlights were switched off," an officer said.

Debabrata's family members had alleged foul play, claiming he had been shot dead by the cops. They had also accused the cops of framing Rajkumar, since he had alerted them about Debabrata's death.

The post-mortem has not revealed any bullet wound. The report said the man had died of multi-organ burst, possibly because he had been run over by a car, the police said.

"Rajkumar has said that he did not know what to do and tried to cook up a story when he called up Debabrata's family," the officer said. He later surrendered at Dum Dum police station.

The officer said the police did not seek Rajkumar's custody as there's enough evidence to prove he was responsible for Debabrata's death.

The police have started a case under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC. The maximum punishment is life imprisonment.

Land broker shot at

A land broker was injured when two youths fired at him in Titagarh, on the northern fringe of the city, on Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Ahmed Ali, 28, was at a tea stall in Titagarh's GC Road when the youths arrived on a bicycle and fired at him, the police said.

One of the bullets grazed his right earlobe, while another hit him in the chest.

He was taken to BN Bose Hospital in the area and later shifted to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.