Three bikers who were students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were killed in a terrible road mishap on the university campus on Friday. The students, who hailed from Bihar were drunk, were racing on a deserted road on the campus. It appears that the boy who was riding failed to notice the sharp turn near the Vice-Chancellor (VC)’s residence and lost control. Their bike thudded into the pavement and they somersaulted into the air and fell down hard.
They were rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in a very critical condition. Doctors said that one of them had died on the spot while the other two succumbed to their injuries during treatment. Police said the incident took place around 2:45 am on Friday. The deceased have been identified as Ravi Shankar Choudhary, Santosh and Ravi Gupta, all MA (Korean language) final year students.
The trio was travelling towards the East end gate outside the V-C’s residence on their CBZ bike. The bike belongs to Choudhary and he was riding it during the time of the incident. They were riding without helmet. A nursery point guard had around 2:38 am informed the control room regarding a rashly driven bike moving towards the East end gate but by the time the guard could take a control of the situation, the boys were seen lying on the road in a pool of blood.
The guard of the East end gate informed the JNU hospital authorities and the trio was then rushed to Safdarjung Hospital from where Santosh was referred to AIIMS Trauma Centre but was declared dead on arrival. Ravi and Chaudhary succumbed to head injuries.
“Santosh’s head was completely crushed and there was sufficient brain matter that had bulged out. It was a case of severe head injury,” said Dr Amit Gupta of AIIMS. The post-mortem report revealed that Choudhary and Santosh were under the influence of alcohol. It was the hospital authorities who informed the police about the accident. Police took suo motu and registered a case of rash and negligent driving causing death at Vasant Kunj North police station.
Sources revealed that two other classmates of the deceased were travelling behind them. Social networking profile of Choudhary reveals that that he was fond of speed and would race at times. Meanwhile, JNU Vice-Chancellor Prof SK Sopory said that the site, where the mishap took place, was an accident-prone zone. “There were boards and hoardings all around the place that asked people to be careful of very sharp turns in the area,” he said.
“In fact, security guards on duty warned these students about their rash driving and also intimated other guards in the place to not let them in or out of any gate,” he added. The tragic death of three students sent shockwaves in the JNU campus as students gathered to mourn and pay their condolences.