‘Distracted’ while driving, woman runs over elderly couple in Dwarka
The driver, identified as Deepakshi Choudhary, was arrested and booked for rash driving or riding in a public way and causing death by negligence, a case regarding which was registered under Indian Penal Code’s Sections 304A and 279 at Dwarka South police station.
A 79-year-old doctor and his 62-year-old wife died after they were hit and run over by a car being driven by a 28-year-old woman at Sector-11, Dwarka in southwest Delhi on Sunday evening, the police said. The couple was out for an evening stroll when the accident took place at around 6.30 pm. The accident was captured in a CCTV camera installed at a mosque across the road.
The driver, identified as Deepakshi Choudhary, was arrested and booked for rash driving or riding in a public way and causing death by negligence, a case regarding which was registered under Indian Penal Code’s Sections 304A and 279 at Dwarka South police station. Choudhary, who works in a multinational company, was later released on bail from the police station itself. Her grey Baleno car involved in the accident was impounded by the police.
The dead couple was identified as Shanti Swaroop Arora and his wife Anjana Arora. They lived in Appu Enclave in Sector-11, Dwarka and their children are settled in the US. Choudhary lives in the same society, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Santosh Kumar Meena said.
There were claims that Chaudhary was learning how to drive when the accident took place. However, the information could not be verified independently. Quoting Chaudhary’s statement on how the accident took place, DCP Meena said she told the police that she was thinking about something and lost focus because of which she lost control over the vehicle.
Police said Chaudhary did not flee the mishap spot and accompanied the injured couple to the hospital. She was at the hospital when the police team reached there after receiving a call about the accident.
In the 6.09 minutes video footage, the couple is seen walking on Masjid Wali Road and two more men are seen there. After crossing the building on which the CCTV is installed, the couple takes a U-turn and go to the left side of the road when suddenly, a grey car moving at a slow speed in the middle of the road starts moving towards them and hit them. The couple falls on the road and the car runs over them. While the elderly man is trapped under the car, his wife is struck under in the back portion of the vehicle, the video shows.
The footage shows two people rushing towards the car as the driver comes out and go where the woman’s body is seen trapped under the vehicle. Chaudhary can then be seen taking out her cellphone from the car and calling someone frantically.
More people rushed to the accident site and pushed the car to rescue the woman trapped underneath. After she was taken aside, some people tried to lift the front portion of the car to take out the injured man. However, when they failed, the went towards the driver side and again tried to lift the vehicle a bit to pull the man from under the vehicle.
Sheikh Abdullah, who was involved in the rescue operation, said he had come to the mosque to perform evening prayers when he heard a commotion outside and rushed to see what happened.
“It was horrible. The elderly man was injured but conscious while I rushed him to a nearby hospital in my car. On the way, he was talking to me and saying he had suffered fractures in his left hand. He also enquired about his wife and asked me to stop my car so that he could see if his wife was also being taken to the hospital. She was unconscious and taken to the hospital in the same car that ran over her,” said Abdullah, who runs a diagnostic centre in Palam.