Trying to catch a balloon, three-year-old comes under wheels of school bus in Gurgaon

The bus had not even moved 10 feet when there was a cracking sound and the driver stopped the vehicle.

A three-year-old boy was crushed to death by a school bus when he was allegedly trying to catch a balloon in Mushidpur village in Farrukhnagar, about 22 km from Gurgaon on Saturday morning.

A three-year-old boy was crushed to death by a school bus when he was allegedly trying to catch a balloon in Mushidpur village in Farrukhnagar, (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The victim was identified as Rakshit Yadav, son of Jitender Yadav, the police said.

A case has been registered under section 279, 304A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on a complaint filed by Jaivir, an eyewitness, at the Farrukhnagar police station.

The incident happened around 8.30am when the victim’s mother, Seema Yadav, went to the bus stand to see off her daughter, a student of Cambridge Public School on Farrukhnagar road, with Rakshit.

Relatives of the victim said that every day, Seema would take Rakshit, her daughter, and two daughters of her brother-in-law, who also study in the same school, to the bus stop.

“(On Saturday morning) I saw the children playing on the road while waiting for the bus. The bus came and all the school-going children embarked on it. The bus had not even moved 10 feet when there was a cracking sound and the driver stopped the vehicle. The boy’s mother saw Rakshit under the bus, screamed and collapsed”, said Hari Ram, an ex-armyman who lives near the bus stop and the first person to pick up the boy from under the bus.

“The boy’s body was lifeless. There was nothing left in him as his head been smashed by the weight of the tyres,” said Hari Ram.

“I picked his body and wrapped it in a cloth,” he said. The bus driver came down from the bus and was at the spot for some time till the family members asked him to leave.

Karan Singh, SHO, Farrukhnagar said initial probe suggested that the boy had seen someone in the bus who dropped the balloon on the road.

“The boy rushed to catch it and came under the tyres. A case under sections 279 and 304A of the IPC has been registered against the bus driver and the bus has been seized,” said Singh.

Rajpal Yadav, former sarpanch of the village, who is related to the family, said there were around 25 students in the bus, who were sent back to their homes safely.