TEEN DRIVER SNUFFS OUT MAN’S LIFE
The accused, Samarth Chugh , was accompanied by two of his batch mates, when he lost control and ran the car onto four sleeping pavement dwellers
NEW DELHI: A Delhi Public School Mathura Road student mowed down a pavement dweller and severely injured three others with his friend’s car in Kashmere Gate area on Thursday morning.
The accused, Samarth Chugh (18), was accompanied by two of his batch mates, when he lost control and ran the car onto the sleeping pavement dwellers.
Two of them were dragged for several metres and one of them was brutally crushed under the wheel, resulting in his immediate death.
The police later arrested Chugh and also apprehended the two students accompanying him, identified as Ujwal Goel (18) and Bhavya Rajpal (18), when they tried to flee the spot.
The deceased man has not yet been identified, while the injured have been identified as Asif (30), Karan (26) and Sanjay (28), all of who used to work as labourers.
They were asleep on the pavement near the Kashmere Gate Railway Bridge when the accident took place.
All the injured sustained injuries to their head, back and neck. Karan was discharged from Sushrut Trauma centre; however, Asif and Sanjay are still in a critical condition.
The three students had stayed the night at a friend’s place on Wednesday for a group study session for their upcoming board exams.
The following morning, they decided to go to their school and Ujwal Goel decided to take his father’s i20 car for the ride.
“Samarth and Bhavya had stayed over at Ujwal’s house in Model Town (2). They were going to appear for their final board exam. Around 5 am, Ujwal handed over his car to Samarth and they were on their way to DPS Mathura Road,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), Jatin Narwal.
Samarth was reportedly driving over the speed limit, when he reached Kashmere Gate underpass, where at least six pavement dwellers were sleeping.
While negotiating a right turn, Samarth lost control of the car and climbed onto the five-foot wide footpath and ran over the four victims.
Even as the car descended the footpath, two of the homeless men were still stuck under the wheels of the car.
They were dragged along with the car for several metres, before it came to a halt.
“The car came out of nowhere and hit us. We were all sleeping on the pavement,” said Sanjay, one of the victims.
Ujwal and Bhavya got out of the car and fled, while Samarth tried to negotiate his way out of the underpass.
One of the victims, however, was still stuck under the wheels of the car, and the grinding motions of the wheel crushed his jaw, killing him in the process.
After he was arrested, it came to light that Samarth did not have a license when he was driving the car, which belonged to Ujwal’s father, Raj Kumar.
The police have registered a case under sections 279, 337 and 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The investigators are now trying to ascertain if Raj Kumar had willingly handed over the car to the students.
Further medical tests are also being conducted to determine whether Samarth was drunk at the time of the accident.