A speeding Mercedes Benz killed a 35-year-old business consultant in North Delhi’s Civil Lines on Monday evening.
The police have apprehended the son of the vehicle’s owner who was allegedly driving the car at the time of the accident. The accused is a minor, just two months short of turning 18 years old. The father of the boy will also be booked under relevant provisions for allowing a minor to drive.
Eyewitnesses have told the police that there were four to five “boys” in the car; individual accounts recounted that as many as eight persons were in the car, a couple of them in their pre-teens.
The victim Siddharth Sharma, a resident of White House Apartments in Civil Lines, was walking towards home when the hit and run incident took place around 9 p.m. near Ludlow Castle School.
Dropped off at Sham Nath Marg by his college friend, who he had shared a cab with, Sharma first went to a local eatery and got some noodles packed before proceeding to cross the road, said his friend Divya. “While crossing the road at that junction, he was hit by the speeding Mercedes. Eye witnesses told us that it was being driven at high speed and in a rash manner,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma.
Siddharth Sharma Eyewitnesses claimed that Sharma was hit at a speed of minimum 80-100 kmph. He was flung at least 15-20 feet in the air by the collision, said Divya who also shared the video of a purported eyewitness recounting the accident.
The car went on to hit the road divider which led to tyre bursts on the right side. It was partially damaged and came to a halt in about 20-30 meters. The occupants got off the car and fled the spot.
Locals shifted Sharma to Sant Parmanand Hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
The police reached the spot and impounded the vehicle. With the help of its registration number plate, they traced its owner.
“However, when we tried to contact the owner or his family members they were not found at their residence nor was there any response to the calls made by us,” said Mr. Verma. It was around Tuesday evening that they finally joined the investigation and were questioned.
“We subjected them to questioning to find out who was driving the vehicle. We initially registered a case of causing death by negligence and rash driving against unidentified persons.
“The boys were going to play basketball. We are probing if the accused had consumed alcohol,” said Mr. Verma. The victim, the son of a retired Naval officer, hailed from Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district and lived in the Capital with the in-laws of his sister Shilpi who is married to film director Yogesh Mittal.
