GHAZIABAD: A car crashed into pieces of logs kept by the road near Delhi Public School in Madhuban Bapudham early on Sunday and ploughed through a footpath, killing a Delhi Police constable seated in front of the vehicle and a daily wager sleeping on the pavement.
A 19-year-old daughter of the man sleeping off the road and a BSF jawan travelling in the Toyota Corolla Altis are battling critical injuries in hospital.Police are looking for two more persons who were on their way to Meerut in the car and fled the spot after the accident. One of them, the cops said, is in the BSF.
While head constable Satyanarayan -a minister’s personal security officer – died before he could be wheeled into the emergency, Ved Prakash – the daily wager – succumbed to injuries in hospital.
Gor Vishwas (40), another head constable in BSF, and Priya, Ved Prakash’s daughter, are said to be critical.
DCP (city) Rajesh Singh said the accident occurred around 2am on Sunday. “Preliminary investigation suggests that the Altis – bearing the registration number DL4C/NE-4499 – was on its way to Meerut. The driver, obviously, was speeding and lost control of the car near DPS, between pillars 728 and 729 of rapid rail. It crashed into some logs of a tree that was cut recently and kept near the road,” he added.
The driver tried to take a sharp turn to avoid crashing into the logs, but failed. One of the car’s wheels got on to the pavement and ran over Prakash and his daughter – who were sleeping outside their shanty.
A police team reached the spot and took the injured persons to Sanjay Nagar District Combined Hospital, where Satyanarayan was declared dead on arrival. The others were admitted. “BSF jawan Vishwas (40) owns the car. He was sitting behind and suffered grievous injuries. There were two others in the car – Harendra Sahlot and Subhash Yadav. The former, we have learnt, is in the BSF too,” Singh said.
Satyanarayan’s brother Parmeshwar, also in Delhi Police as a sub-inspector, said, “He was a personal security officer with a Delhi minister. I spoke to him late on Friday night. He said he was going out with some friends, but didn’t specify the location. The next morning, we learnt about the accident. Just hours later, I am now carrying his body for the final rites at our hometown in Sikar.”
Geeta, Prakash’s wife, lodged a police complaint. She said many people staying in shanties off the road slept outside in the hot and humid weather.
“My husband and daughter were sleeping next to each other. I was asleep too, but at a distance. I was jolted out of sleep by a crashing sound and saw my daughter groaning in pain. My husband was lying motionless, bleeding from his wounds. Two persons came out of the car and ran away,” she said in her complaint.
An FIR was registered against the car driver under sections 106 (causing death by negligence), 281 (rash driving or driving on public way), and 125B (causing grievous hurt by endangering life or personal safety of others) of BNS.
“We are trying to identify the two others. Police teams have been formed to investigate and scan CCTV footage,” Singh said.