New Delhi, Sept 21: A tiff over smoking in public led a motorist to mow down two youths on a bike at the AIIMS flyover in south Delhi, leaving one of them dead and the other with an injured leg.
One of the victims, Gurpreet Singh, 21, a student of photography, succumbed to severe head injuries on Wednesday. His friend Maninder Singh is bound to a wheelchair after a surgery on his leg. TOI had reported the accident that took place on Sunday.
The accused, Rohit Kumar Mahanta, who was allegedly drunk, was booked for murder and arrested on Wednesday night after police recorded Maninder's statement. Maninder said the argument began when he and Gurpreet objected to Mahanta blowing smoke at them at an eatery.
Maninder told the police that he and Gurpreet had gone to AIIMS to finalise locations for shooting a project on nightlife on Delhi's footpaths. The youths were studying photography at a private college. After their scouting work, they stopped at a parantha shop near Safdarjung Enclave for a bite. The accused Mahanta, a resident of Defence Colony, had gone to the same eatery to order food.
"The man came smoking a cigarette and started blowing the smoke on my face. When Gurpreet protested, the man started abusing us and said we land up in the city from nowhere and start behaving as if we own the place," Maninder said.
"There was an altercation but we backed off as people there said the man was drunk. They advised us to leave the place rather than extend the fight," the youth said.
Maninder added that Mahanta threatened them, saying he would have had us killed if we were in his town in Assam. As they drove off in their Enfield Bullet motorcycle, Mahanta allegedly followed in his Ford Figo car. He rammed the bike from behind at great speed, dragging the two-wheeler for a distance before crashing into an Ola cab and a rickshaw. Mahanta then reversed and fled, Maninder said.
The two youths were taken to the AIIMS trauma centre where Gurpreet was admitted to the intensive care unit with severe head injuries. He was declared dead on Wednesday afternoon.
Gurpreet's family, which owns a business in Punjab, was handed over the body after an autopsy on Wednesday evening.
Initially, a case under bailable sections of causing hurt due to negligence and rash and negligent driving was registered against Mahanta on the basis of the cab driver's statement. Mahanta was arrested after being caught by a few bystanders but later released on bail. His father is a professor at IIT Delhi.
Additional DCP (south) Chinmoy Biswal said police added new sections — murder (302) and attempt to murder (307) — after recording Maninder's statement. The cops would move the court for permission to take further action in the case, he said.
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