Delhi: Drunk driver kills 2 cops, injures another

A Delhi Police assistant-sub inspector and a constable were killed while a head constable was left critically injured when a call centre van, asked to halt at a police barricade, ploughed into them, the police said Sunday.

Two policemen were killed and another was critically injured when a speeding Maruti Eeco car rammed a police picket near Jaitpur on the Delhi-Noida border early on Sunday morning.

The policemen were dragged nearly 30 feet before the car came to a halt. Sources said the driver, cabbie for a Noida-based BPO firm, was in a highly inebriated condition. He was arrested.

Police said the incident occurred around 12:30am when the personnel posted at the picket tried to stop the speeding car which was travelling towards Delhi from Noida via the Mahamaya flyover. “The pickets were in a zigzag formation. While one policeman was in front of the first barricade, two were behind it. After impact, the driver did not stop the car and continued to drag the three policemen before the barricades came under the wheels, bringing the vehicle to a halt,” said a police official.

Assistant Sub-inspector Nagender Singh, 52, and constable Sawarkar Pralhad Ramao, 41, died at the hospital while head constable Kaptaan Singh, 52, was said to be critical. Sources said the driver was identified as 39-year-old Hemant Kumar.

“He was so drunk that he couldn’t even get out of the car. We also found a bottle of rum in the vehicle,” said a senior police official.