1 held for Ashram hit-and-run, car seized from Noida

A 45-year-old man who works as a liaison for a developer in the Delhi-NCR region was arrested for mowing down a 34-year-old man on a bicycle with his luxury car in Ashram, southeast Delhi on Saturday, police said on Sunday. The car, a Mercedes-Benz, hit the victim’s bicycle from behind on the Ashram-Bhogal flyover and dragged him for 150 metres before speeding away, police said.
The victim was identified as Rajesh Kumar, a gardener who lived in Madanpur Khadar, said police. A passerby who spotted the victim lying in a pool of blood on the flyover called the Sunlight Colony police station at 8am, police said.
“We rushed to the spot and found a body lying on the roadside. The victim’s cycle was lying 150 metres away. The car, a Mercedes-Benz, had hit and dragged him and then sped away from the spot,” said Harsh Indora, additional deputy commissioner of police (southeast).
Police registered a case, checked CCTV footage around the flyover and identified the car’s registration number. The car’s ownership documents revealed that it belonged to two builders who work in Delhi and the National Capital Region, said police. “The car was in the name of their company. They told us that last month, they had given the car to the suspect, who is a liaison for their company, to sell it off. They told us where the suspect could be found and gave us his house address. But in the meantime, the suspect surrendered before us at the Sunlight Colony police station on Saturday,” said ADCP Indora
The suspect, Pradeep Gautam, 45, a resident of Noida Sector 46, was arrested. The Mercedes-Benz GLE 43, which was damaged in the accident, was seized from near his house in Noida, said police.
“Gautam had hit the victim and fled the scene. He had the car for more than a month,” added Indora. Police booked Gautam under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections of rash driving and causing death by negligence.
Police said that Kumar’s body was sent for a post-mortem and later handed over to his family. Kumar is survived by his wife and their two sons aged eight and 12. The family is from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. They said Kumar was on his way to work when he was killed. He would cycle 20km from his house in Madanpur Khadar to Jor Bagh for work every day, they said.
Ramesh Kumar, the victim’s elder brother, said, “I was at work when I received a call about the accident. He used to leave the house by 6.30-7am. I rushed to the spot and found that he had been dragged for 200 metres. We are three brothers…He was going to Jor Bagh for work when he was killed. The suspect fled.”
Jeet Lal, the victim’s brother-in-law, said that Gautam was drunk and driving recklessly. “Eyewitnesses told us that he was drunk and trying to overtake the cycle when he hit Kumar. We want the accused booked for murder,” said Lal.
Police said that no witnesses at the spot mentioned drunken driving but added that Gautam underwent a blood test and other medical tests and a report is awaited.