The death of a 14-year-old boy who was run over by a Delhi Transport Corporation bus in Govindpuri on Tuesday afternoon sparked a violent protest resulting in 16 buses getting damaged.
The protesters said the accident happened when Harish Sagar of Sangam Vihar was going to school at Tughlakabad Extension. The road where the accident took place is almost at the intersection of Mehrauli-Badarpur Road and Ravi Das Road.
“The accident happened around 12-45 p.m. Harish came under the wheels of the speeding DTC bus when he was crossing the road. The bus was coming from the direction of Sangam Vihar. Even after running over the boy driver did not apply brakes,” said a student of Government School No. 3 where Harish was studying.
Eyewitnesses said after area residents gathered at the accident spot, the driver abandoned the vehicle and fled.
Traffic police personnel alerted the Police Control Room and a PCR van carried the victim to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Trauma Centre where he was declared dead.
“The boy’s head got crushed. The crowd targeted the bus and pelted stones at the vehicle and broke the windscreen and windows,” another eyewitness said.
The bus which ran over Harish was the first of 16 buses to be targeted by the crowd, which went on the rampage for two hours.
Buses on both sides of Ravidas Road were stopped, evacuated and smashed. The roads were strewn with broken glass pieces.
The buses that bore the brunt of the mob included DTC buses (both air conditioned and non-air conditioned) and orange cluster buses. The violence was brought under control by the police after nearly two hours.
While Ravidas Road remained the epicentre of the protest, some buses were also damaged near Batra Hospital, close to the house of the deceased.
The driver, 30-year-old Zuber Khan, was arrested and a case of rash driving and causing death by negligence registered against him.