Audi mows down 3-year-old

A three-year-old boy was crushed to death when a white Audi Q7 ran over him at North-west Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar area on Wednesday night. The minor has been identified as Raunak. The accident took place at around 8.30 pm at the main road near the Sava Singh Gurudwara in Outram Lane area.

Death of the minor led to protests by the family members and neighbours outside the car owner’s house on Thursday afternoon where police force was deployed to disperse them. Kartik Khuarana, who owns the car, is a garment trader and lives in the same locality.

According to the victim’s father, Neeraj, who sells vegetables on the Gurudwara road, his son was playing in the lane when the driver of the SUV, Sanjeev, ran over the kid. He said: “Sanjeev was driving the car when he ran over my child. After hitting my kid once, he again rammed the car and was trying to flee when the locals held him.”

“I immediately took Raunak in my arms and rushed to a private hospital in the area, where he was declined treatment. He was bleeding profusely from his head. I knew he had died but I took him to the trauma centre of the Babu Jag Jivan Ram hospital where he was declared dead,” he said.

“The lane outside the Sava Singh Gurudwara is always congested due to encroachment by the e-rickshaws and vendors. People drive rashly in the neighbourhood. There is no civic management,” said Dr R Kumar, a local resident.

Sunita, Raunak’s aunt, said: “The accident took place right outside the house. The driver of the car even stepped out and said he thought he ran over a kitten. He was in the habit of getting his owner’s car and flaunting it.”

According to the police, the driver has been arrested and the car has been impounded. Since the car owner was not present at the time of incident, he has not been booked.

A case has been registered under Sections 279 (rash driving) and 304 (A) (Causing death by negligence) of the IPC at the Mukherjee Nagar police station. Police are analysing the CCTV footage to know more about the fatal accident.