Minor on late-night drive in uncle’s car fatally ran over two sisters in Model Town

The boy, a class 12 student at a private school in Model Town, was out on a casual late-night drive in his uncle’s Honda City when he allegedly hit the four people crossing the road, Vijayanta Arya, deputy commissioner of police (north-west) said.

The unidentified car that fatally ran over two minor sisters and left two others injured in north Delhi’s Model Town in a hit-and-run on Monday night was allegedly driven by a 17-year-old boy, police said on Wednesday after picking up broken pieces of the vehicle’s registration number plate that helped them identify and nab the suspect -- an incident that highlights the problem of underage driving in India.

The Honda City car that allegedly hit the four people in Model Town. (Sourced)

The boy, a class 12 student at a private school in Model Town, was out on a casual late-night drive in his uncle’s Honda City when he allegedly hit the four people crossing the road, Vijayanta Arya, deputy commissioner of police (north-west) said.

“The boy’s father will also be held culpable under the new Motor Vehicles Act,” the DCP said. She said legal action under the Act would be pursued even against the owner of the car.

According to the new Act, the guardian of an underage driver is liable to be jailed for up to three years and fined Rs 25,000 if convicted. The legal age to get a car driving licence in India is 18 years.

The DCP said that for now, the most stringent Indian Penal Code sections that would be pressed in this case is 304A (causing death by negligence).

Asked if it would be converted to IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), she said it would depend on the outcome of the probe. While a person convicted under section 304A can be jailed for up to three years, or even be let off with a fine, a conviction under section 304 could land a convict in jail for up to 10 years.

In the present case, it will all depend on whether the boy is tried as a minor or as an adult, she said.

In a similar accident in 2016, not very far from the latest spot, a boy four days short of turning 18, had fatally mowed down a marketing professional in north Delhi’s Civil Lines. The boy was apprehended and his father arrested.

The Supreme Court, however, earlier this year, refused to allow the driver to be tried as an adult as it found that he had not committed a “heinous” crime.

The two sisters killed in the accident were aged seven and four years. Along with their five-year-old brother and a family friend, they were crossing GT Road at about 11.45 pm on Monday night when the vehicle, which was unidentified at that time, hit them. The sisters died in hospital while the other two are undergoing treatment.

The children’s parents were getting their car refuelled at a CNG station while they were crossing the road with their father’s friend, Milap Singh, to have fruit juice at a nearby stall when the car hit them.

The DCP said while the car sped away, investigators found broken pieces of the registration plate at the spot.

“We found it was a Honda City car registered in Haryana. We checked with the transport department to identify the owner. It turned out that the boy’s uncle was the third owner of this car,” the DCP said.

The police visited their house in Model Town to learn that it was the boy who had allegedly driven out the car that night. “He was out alone on a casual late-night drive,” the DCP said.

The officer said after the accident, the boy returned home and told his family about the incident. The boy’s father runs a hardware business in north Delhi.

“They had given away the car to a mechanic for repair work. We seized the car,” the DCP said.

The police are yet to receive the boy’s blood report to determine if or not he was drunk at the time of the accident.

Underage driving is a common problem in Delhi. In 2018, Delhi Traffic Police had prosecuted 1,228 such minor driver. That was a 589% jump from just 178 prosecutions in 2013. No data was readily available after 2018.

According to a 2018 report by Nissan India and road safety NGO SaveLIFE Foundation, 96.4% underage drivers who were prosecuted said their parents knew they were driving the vehicles.