A toddler was crushed to death on Tuesday afternoon when a private school van, which had just dropped the boy near his house in North Delhi’s Civil lines area, ran him over while reversing. Driver Rahul Kumar (28) has been arrested, police said.
According to a police officer, three-and-a-half-year-old Aviral, who lived in a Railway colony on Sri Ram Road, was studying in John Wesley playschool, that is barely 2 km from his house. “Kumar, who was driving a Maruti Eeco van, had dropped four children home before dropping Aviral. He then took a U-turn rashly and mowed down the child,” said the police officer.
Seeing this the victim’s father Hitender Singh, a technician in Northern Railways, who was watching his son from the balcony screamed in shock. “Aviral was dragged a couple of metres by the van and the profusely bleeding child became unconscious,” police said.
Bystanders raised an alarm and stopped the vehicle. They pulled the driver out of the van and thrashed him. Police were informed about the incident by the victim’s father. A police team rushed to the spot and took the driver into custody. The toddler was rushed to Parmanand Hospital where doctors tried to revive him before declaring him brought dead.
Singh said, “I was standing on the balcony of my first floor flat and his mother was on the stairs. We have lost our son in front of our eyes.”
The body has been sent for post-mortem.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Varma said a case under Section 279/ 304A of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the driver at Civil lines Police Station. “The accused Rahul had a clean record till now,” added Verma.