Accident spot is favourite hub of ‘reckless’ bikers, say residents

Owner of a roadside dhaba in south Delhi’s Qutab Institutional Area, 66-year-old Tinku dreads Sunday mornings. “Every Sunday morning, dozens of spoilt rich boys riding expensive motorcycles gather outside my dhaba and begin honking endlessly,” he said.

But honking is just a minor part of the menace. “It gets really scary when these boys start performing stunts on their bikes. It is almost like they would kill someone,” said Tinku, who has been living in a shanty next to the dhaba for three decades.

One such alleged stunt here on Sunday morning went wrong, killing 20-year-old Raman and severely injuring two others.

But local businessmen said such a fatal accident was just waiting to happen. The stretch of 20-feet wide road outside Fore School of Management is a favourite destination for stunt bikers every Sunday. Cars parked on either side of the road do not deter the stunt bikers who arrive in large numbers.

Thin traffic on this road makes it a hotspot for stunt bikers who indulge in wheeling and flying off slopes at high speeds, among other stunts.

Locals said they frequently have narrow shaves if they dare to venture out on the road when the bikers are in action. “Just a few weeks ago, a speeding sports bike whooshed past me while racing against another motorcycle. I narrowly beat death that day,” says Krishna Mohan, a private security guard.

No one dares to take on these riders. “They tell us to mind our own business and say it is their own lives and bikes they are risking. They know they have money and can have their way,” says Pradeep, another dhaba owner, adding that police patrolling on that road has not helped curb the menace.

Most of the bikers are in full safety gear while performing stunts, say those who frequently watch them ride. That, police said, is one of the reasons why two others involved in Sunday’s head-on collision are still alive despite suffering grievous injuries. Raman’s helmet, however, had come off.

Tinku says it was a miracle that two of the three youths involved in Sunday’s accident are still alive. “The speeds at which the two motorcycles were charging towards each other, it appeared that the men riding them were enemies out to kill each other,” Tinku recounts the fatal accident.

Raman’s family, meanwhile, has dismissed the allegations by the eyewitnesses that Raman was among those performing stunts.