Ryan International student run over by van dies

The Class III student of Ryan International School had slipped in coma after falling on the ground and suffering swelling in the brain. She was under constant supervision by the doctors in the Intensive Care Unit of Medanta - The Medicity after the accident on May 9.

Pankaj Juneja, the father of the deceased had also accused the school of not following the safety norms as he alleged that when the accident took place, the school bus didn’t have a mandatory conductor and an attendant to drop the girl on the opposite side near Krishna Colony in old Gurgaon.

“Just a night before the little girl succumbed to her injuries, Vinod, the driver of the school bus surrendered in Sector 5 (Old Gurgaon) police station and was produced before the magistrate in the court, following which he was taken into police custody,” said Shailender Kumar, SHO, Sector 5 Police station. The case has been registered against him and he has been booked under Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.

According to the information received from the police officials, the driver of the speeding van who ran over the seven-year-old girl is still absconding. The parents of the deceased had registered a complaint against the driver of the van at Sector 4 police outpost. FIR under Sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life) and 338 (grievous hurt) of Indian Penal Code was registered in the case.

Earlier, the school authority had refused to pay for the expenses at the hospital when Jiya was admitted to a private hospital immediately after the incident. But the parents along with the members of the parent body of the school assembled at the school to protest against the administration. Later on Friday, after the protest, the school authority had agreed to pay for the girl’s treatment.

Even though the school administration had said that there was no negligence on their part, the teacher who accompanied the students in the bus was suspended. The teacher in her defence had earlier said: “When I had got down from the bus holding Jiya’s hand, a student shouted out for me from the bus because of which I went inside to attend to the student. Meanwhile, Jiya rushed to cross the road.”

The city police are also investigating the case at their level to nab the driver of the van. “We have taken testimonies of witnesses and are probing the case. We are also trying if we can have any CCTV footage from the accident area, so that the driver of the van could be identified,” assistant commissioner of police, Hawa Singh, said.

 Soon after the news of her death, tributes started pouring in on social media. “RIP Jiya, this is really sad. May god give courage to her parents,” Gunjan Khurana, a parent, wrote on the Facebook group Gurgaon Parents for Better Education.