School bus ‘runs over’ 2-year-old in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: A two-year-old boy was crushed to death allegedly by the driver of a private school bus at Rithoj Dhani village i n Bhondsi, Gurugram, on Thursday morning.

The incident took place when the bus had arrived to pick up the victim’s four-year-old sister and three-year-old brother for school from near their house.

Both are students of Vivek Model School, Vatika Kunj.

The victim, Aryan Khatana, also called Arjun, was playing outside the house when the bus allegedly ran him over, police said. The school is barely 2km from the accident spot.

The driver and conductor of the bus were arrested, even as school authority denied their involvement.

Family members of the boy said that 20 minutes after the bus left the spot, they spotted the twoyear-old lying on the road in a pool of blood. They said they immediately rushed him to a private hospital, where he was declared dead.

Ankit Khatana, the victim’s uncle, said the boy’s mother was helping her other children board the bus when the incident took place. “As the bus left, my sisterin-law walked back to the house. She wasn’t aware that Arjun was playing outside. It was her husband who spotted Arjun lying in the lane outside and shouted for help. We rushed him to a private hospital but he was declared dead on arrival,” Ankit said, adding that a police complaint was lodged later.

“The school bus returned to the area 20 minutes later to pick up some more children. This time, some neighbours caught hold of the driver and the conductor,” the victim’s uncle said.

“Family members and some neighbours have alleged that the boy was playing near the bus and the driver couldn’t spot him and crushed him to death,” said Umesh Kumar, inspector, Bhondsi police station.

Some villagers later allegedly vandalised the bus and roughed up the driver and conductor before handing them over to the police.

The villagers also staged a protest outside the school and demanded action against the authorities. They left the scene after the police assured a fair probe in the case.

The school authorities washed their hands of any involvement in the incident, stating that it was possible that the boy had come under the wheels of some other bus as more than 10 school buses ply on the lane on any given day.

“We are saddened by the boy’s death. However, how can a school bus run over a child and no one hears him scream. If the driver was at fault, why did he return to the scene of the incident? There are no blood stains on the bus’s tyres and neither are there any eyewitnesses,” Jatin Adlakha, director of the school, said.