2-yr-old loved night drives, say relatives

NEW DELHI: The two-year-old boy who escaped being killed while his mother was shot dead in Rohini on Wednesday, loved night drives. His parents — particularly his father Pankaj Mehra — often took the child for night drives, said the boy’s grandfather.

But one such drive on Wednesday scarred the child for life. By the time the drive ended, the boy’s mother was dead and he was drenched in her blood.

“When the boy was brought to a hospital with his mother, doctors saw the blood on his clothes and thought he too might have been shot. It later emerged that the boy just suffered minor bruises ,” said an investigator.

The boy survived after his mother, Priya Mehra, hurriedly hid him under the car’s seat dur- ing the attack. According to family members, the boy still hasn’t realised that his mother is dead, but has been traumatised. “He has not been speaking to anyone and has mostly been sleeping,” said his aunt, Ritu Sharma.

Milind Dumbere, DCP (northwest), said four teams had been formed to solve the case and they had no immediate plans of speaking to the boy. “We hope to solve the case without having to make him go through the horror again,” said Dumbere.

Pankaj told police that initially he feared his son too was shot, but while speeding away from the killers, he pulled the boy out from under the seat. “He put his son on his lap and drove 3km to a hospital,” said the DCP.

The police have been questioning Pankaj even as the prime focus of the probe was a money lender who had allegedly loaned money to Pankaj.