Man impaled on iron grille was homeless, helped poor
RICKSHAWPULLERS, WHO WERE THE LAST TO SEE MANOJ ALIVE, SAID THE WHITE CAR MUST HAVE BEEN SPEEDING AT OVER 80100 KM/HR
Manoj Yadav, 25, was among the thousands of homeless men living on the Delhi streets. He slept on the roof of a roadside juice shop in central Delhi, where he worked, more than 1,200 kilometres away from his family in Supaul, Bihar.
Manoj had left his shop outside the Doll museum in ITO, and was crossing the Bahadur Shah Zafar (BSZ) Marg in ITO to provide dinner for homeless rickshaw-pullers who lived on the central verge of the road, when a speeding white Audi car hit him. Manoj was flung at least 10-15 feet in the air and landed on an iron grille median — the rods impaling his chest and killing him on the spot.
Delhi Police on Monday afternoon detained Rajiv Kumar, a south Delhi property dealer with an office in Daryaganj, in connection with the case. Kumar, a GK-1 resident, was identified after the police team scanned CCTV footages in at least 20 different routes near the spot.
More than 36 hours after the incident, blood still stained the road next to the central verge. The homeless rickshaw-pullers, who were the last to see Manoj alive, told police that the white car must have been speeding at over 80-100 km/hr. The CCTV footage from a camera placed at a traffic signal, around 100 metres away from the accident spot, showed a white sedan with a damaged bonnet fleeing the spot. Police said Kumar, who fled the spot after the accident, took a friend’s help to hide the car in Noida. It was recovered.
A father of a four-year-old girl, Manoj used to provide food for homeless persons on the streets, eyewitnesses told the police. “He had been working at the juice shop for the last 4-5 years. He slept on the roof of our shop next to the BSZ Marg. Manoj lived alone. His younger brother works in Rohini,” said Bhola Nath, owner of the juice shop.
Bhola Nath said that after closing the juice shop everyday at 10pm, Manoj always looked for work at night to make some extra money. “He helped unload newspapers at night to feed his family. Our juice shop is in the middle of offices of all the media houses. So, Manoj helped unload the newspapers till the wee hours,” Bhola Nath said.
A shopkeeper, who claimed to be one of the first to reach the spot after hearing the rickshawpullers cry for help, said that it took at least half an hour for them to remove Manoj’s body. The iron rods had pierced his chest while his head was severed. “It was disturbing. Some of his friends who worked in the nearby shops came forward, but there were others who took videos of the man. There were many cars that were driving pasta ta high speed, no one stopped. Many accidents happen here because of the wide road,” the shopkeeper said.
Manoj’s body was taken to his home town in Bihar by his younger brother and friends.