A 30-year-old documentary film-maker, Piyush Pal, was killed in a road accident in south Delhi, the police said on Wednesday. A passer-by spotted Pal lying in a severely injured state near Panchsheel Park almost 30 minutes after the accident late on October 28 and rushed him to a hospital. The film-maker succumbed to injuries on Tuesday.
DCP (South) Chandan Chowdhury said a call regarding the incident was received on October 28 at 10.11 p.m. at the Hauz Khas police station. The caller had spotted two men with injuries lying on the road. The two — Pal and a man named Bunty, 26 — were shifted to different hospitals.
The accident was captured on a nearby CCTV camera in which Pal’s motorcycle could be seen colliding with the motorcycle of Mr. Bunty, who works as a driver in Gurugram.
Mr. Bunty told the police that around 9.45 p.m., while he was driving near the Panchsheel Park metro station, he saw a speeding motorcycle come from behind and hit him on the side, following which he fell on the road. He was admitted to AIIMS Trauma Centre, while Pal was rushed to PSRI Hospital.
The police have registered a case under IPC Sections 279 (rash driving) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life) at the Hauz Khas police station.
“We received information about Pal’s death around 6 p.m. on Tuesday. His post-mortem was conducted a day later, after which the body was handed over to his relatives,” the DCP said, adding that further investigation in the case is under way.
Pal’s friend, Abhishek Haldar, who had worked with him since 2019, said that Pal was most likely returning from swimming classes at R.K. Puram. “He was lying injured for 30 minutes, and nobody bothered to help. This shows grave public apathy,” Mr. Haldar said.
He alleged that it was Mr. Bunty who, while riding his two-wheeler rashly, hit Pal. In response, the DCP said teams have been constituted to scan more CCTV footage of the area.
“We have recovered CCTV footage which shows the two bikes running parallelly. One of them could be seen turning left abruptly. We have filed an FIR after taking Bunty’s statement,” an officer said.
Pal is survived by his sister, mother, and father, who owns a shop in C.R. Park.
