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Regional legislator ousted after causing fatal road accident

Valery Kalugin ran down a pedestrian on November 12, 2012, who died on the spot
Russian traffic patrol (archive) ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov
Russian traffic patrol (archive)
© ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov

STAVROPOL, March 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Regional legislators in the Stavropol territory voted on Thursday to terminate the powers of their colleague who caused a fatal road accident last year and fled the scene.

Thirty-four of 37 deputies voted for ousting Valery Kalugin, head of the regional parliament’s committee on legislation.

Speaker Yuri Bely said more than half of Kalugin's colleagues, in a formal procedure, had demanded his resignation, and that his colleagues from the United Russia faction had also recommended him to step down.

The regional department of the Investigative Committee said Kalugin ran down a pedestrian on November 12, 2012, who died on the spot.

The legislator, when questioned, said he had assumed he had run down a dog.

Criminal proceedings against Kalugin were later dropped due to "a lack of corpus delicti," but prosecutors challenged the Investigative Committee' decision and sent the case for reinvestigation.