Last Updated: March 14, 2024, 21:12 IST
The polytechnic student is in police custody and legal action is being taken.
(Representative image)
Another teen who was in the car but had escaped has also joined the investigation, the officer said. The police said it was suspected that the minor pair were on a joyride when they lost control of their vehicle
A 17-year-old polytechnic student was driving the car that killed a woman and injured nine people in east Delhi’s congested Ghazipur market area, police said on Thursday, a day after the accident. The accident occurred late on Wednesday when a Hyundai Aura rammed into shops in the crowded weekly market, killing 22-year-old Sita Devi and leaving nine people injured, an officer said. The polytechnic student is in police custody and legal action is being taken. Another teen who was in the car but had escaped has also joined the investigation, the officer said. The police said it was suspected that the minor pair were on a joyride when they lost control of their vehicle.
The accident was caught on CCTV camera. The driver was seen trying to escape and being caught by locals, who thrashed him before handing him over the police, the officer said. A purported video of a group of irate people smashing the vehicle’s windscreen and windows and trying to break its doors before flipping it over also surfaced on social media.
“We are investigating under what circumstances the two minors got the car,” the officer said. The car — used as an app cab — is usually driven by Neeraj, who has been asked to join the probe alongside the vehicle owner Rajkumar, the police said. A case has been registered under sections 279 (rash driving) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code at Ghazipur police station, they said.
Sita Devi, who died in the accident, worked in a private company in Noida. A native of Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri, she had gone to buy household items from the Ghazipur market.
She lived in a rented accommodation with her brother, Kapil, at Khoda Colony near the market, the police said. Among the injured, Tanuja, Annu Kumari, Malti Chauhan, Mansi, Sarita, Durjan Singh, Jameel and Rajkumar were discharged after treatment, the police said. The identity of the ninth injured person could not be ascertained.