Audi crushes two-year-old to death

A two-year-old boy was crushed to death by an Audi car in north-west Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar late Wednesday evening. The driver abandoned the vehicle and escaped from the spot but was hunted down by the locals and handed over to police.

The car owner has been identified as a garments merchant in the area, said Vijay Singh, DCP (North-West), adding that the vehicle was being driven by his chauffer Sanjeev Kumar.

The driver told police that he had taken the car out for refilling and was driving back to his employer’s home when the child came under its rear wheel. He has been booked and arrested.

The incident took place around 8.30 p.m. as Kumar was trying to manoeuvre the car through a crowded market. According to eyewitnesses, the driver was speeding at the time of the accident. The victim has been identified as Raunak. According to his father Neeraj, Raunak and his older brother Sandeep, five, would come over to his stall every evening and play around.

“Yesterday too Raunak and Sandeep were playing near the stall when the speeding car suddenly ran over my younger son. I noticed it and shouted out which drew the attention of others around,” said Neeraj.

The man behind the wheels drove some distance but with people immediately gathering on the road, he was forced to abandon the car and escape.

He fled into a nearby JJ Colony and took shelter in one of the huts. Locals, however, pulled him out of the dwelling. He was thrashed and handed over to police. “The driver has claimed that the children began running along with his car when it passed the street,” said the DCP. Meanwhile, the victim’s family, along with dozens of other local residents, surrounded the car owner’s house in the area and demanded compensation for the death. Some of them also pelted stones at the local police station, but the situation was brought under control by a police team.