3, including 9-yr-old girl, killed after tempo rams into autorickshaw in Alipur

Three people, including a nine-year-old girl, were killed in Delhi when a speeding tempo collided with their autorickshaw, injuring four others.

NEW DELHI: Three people, including a nine-year-old girl, were killed while four others sustained injuries after an allegedly speeding tempo hit an autorickshaw near Shiv Mandir in outer north Delhi’s Alipur area early Wednesday morning, police said.

According to police, the accident occurred around 7.30am when the autorickshaw was travelling towards Tikri village with six passengers onboard. (HT Photo)

According to police, the accident occurred around 7.30am when the autorickshaw was travelling towards Tikri village with six passengers onboard.

The victims were identified as Mukesh Kumar, 48, a fruit vendor and resident of Tikri village originally from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, his wife Pinki, 40, their six-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter, besides two other passengers - Chotu Pandit, 28, a resident of Bihar’s East Champaran district, and one unidentified person.

Police said Raju Sharma, 52, a resident of Karawal Nagar who was driving the autorickshaw, the nine-year-old girl and the unidentified passenger were declared dead at Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra Hospital.

The remaining four injured people were referred to Lok Nayak Hospital for treatment.

An officer said that during the initial probe, it was found that Mukesh and his family had returned from their native village in Ballia earlier in the day and had hired an autorickshaw from ISBT to reach their home in Tikri village. The driver had reportedly picked up two additional passengers along the route.

“After sustained efforts and technical analysis of CCTV footage, the offending vehicle was identified as a tempo and traced,” the officer said.

Police later seized the tempo and apprehended the 23-year-old accused driver, originally from Madhubani district in Bihar.

An FIR under sections 281 (rash driving), 125(A) (causing hurt) and 106(1) (causing death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered at Alipur police station.

Police said the accused driver is being interrogated to ascertain the circumstances that led to the collision. “It has, however, been established that the tempo hit the auto-rickshaw from behind,” the officer said.

Speaking to HT, Sharma’s son, Param, 20, said that his father left for work as usual around 6 am . “Around 8-8:30am, we received a call that his autorickshaw had met with an accident and that he had suffered a leg injury. After reaching the police station, I was told that he had been shifted to Raja Harish Chand Hospital and learnt that he passed away”.

“The police told us that the auto-rickshaw was hit from the front by the bumper of the vehicle, but when we saw the condition of the auto, we found that it was damaged badly from the rear as well,” the 20-year-old Delhi University student said.

Param, a resident of Karawal Nagar, said his father had started driving at the age of 20 and, with nearly three decades of experience, has been a careful driver with no history of accidents.

Sharma was the sole breadwinner in a family comprising four members - his two sons and his wife.