3 killed, 1 injured as truck rams car

NEWDELHI::THREE men of a family were killed and another critically injured after their car rammed a truck in south east Delhi’s Okhla Phase 1 on Sunday night. Police have arrested the truck driver for negligence and rash driving.

The three men who were killed were identified as Siddhartha Rai (45), a resident of Indira Kalyan Vihar, Okhla, his younger brother Sushankar Rai (42) and Siddhartha’s brother-in-law Apoorva Sarkar,35. The brother hailed from Madhya Pradesh.

While Siddhartha and Apoorva worked as drivers with app-based cabs, Sushankar was an electrician. Police identified the injured man as Roopam Mandal, a neighbour of the two brothers. He works at a chemist shop.

Police said he accident took place around 11pm on Maa Anand Mai Marg near Indira Kalyan Vihar in Okhla Phase 1.

“Area residents and passersby reported the incident to the police. A team rushed to the spot and found that the accident had happened when a 14-wheeler truck, coming from the MB Road side, negligently took a sharp turn towards Okhla Phase 1, and collided into the Wagonr car that was approaching Okhla from the Govindpuri side,” a senior police officer said.

“The collision was such that the car was crushed under the truck. All car occupants were rushed to nearby hospitals, where Siddhartha, Sushankar and Apoorva were pronounced dead, while Mandal was admitted for treatment,” he said.

Deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said the truck driver, identified as 32-year-old Ram Rattan from Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri, was arrested from the spot. He has been booked for rash driving and causing death due to negligence.

“Families of the deceased were informed and the bodies were sent for a post-mortem examination. A preliminary inquiry revealed that the Wagonr car belonged to Apoorva and it was he who was driving it at the time of the accident. Sushankar lived in Madhya Pradesh and had come to Delhi to meet his brother Siddhartha,” the DCP said.

Biswal said Mandal’s condition is critical and he has been admitted to the ICU at Max Hospital in Saket.

Siddhartha’s son Sobroto said his father and two uncles, along with their friend, had gone to refill CNG in the Wagonr car. “They had all met after long and had gone out for a drive. One of our neighbours was out for a stroll on the main road when he saw the accident and alerted us,” he said.