Delhi: Engineer dies in auto crash, driver robs belongings and flees

An auto-rickshaw driver in Delhi allegedly fled with the belongings of his passengers after the speeding vehicle overturned killing a software engineer and leaving his family injured last Friday.

Like thousands others on the Seemanchal Express returning to Delhi after celebrating Chhat puja in their native Bihar, Subodh Srivastav,42, his wife Sushma and son Priyan arrived at Anand Vihar railway station on Friday night. They hailed an auto-rickshaw for the last leg of their journey to their west Delhi residence.

Thirty minutes later when they were 15km from the station, the auto hit a divider and overturned, pinning a badly injured Srivastav underneath and knocking his wife and teenaged son out cold.

As Srivastav, a software engineer, lay bleeding to death, Sushma recovered consciousness only to see the auto-rickshaw driver righting his vehicle and speeding away with their luggage.

“I remember the auto driver was speeding and my husband had to warn him twice. But he didn’t listen and instead picked up speed till the auto finally hit a divider,” said Sushma, 40, while narrating the sequence of events. The next few seconds were a blur.

When Sushma opened her eyes, dazed and hurting, she saw the auto had overturned with Srivastav trapped under it; her son was a little way off.

“I saw the driver remove my husband from under the auto. Then he kept our three bags and a laptop inside. I thought he’d take us to hospital but he looked at us once and then drove away,” she said. “I was shocked, I still am.”

She desperately signalled a mini-truck to stop. The driver “looked at us” and drove away, Sushma recalled. Several minutes later, a car finally stopped and the four young people inside called the police. A security guard from a nearby hotel brought some water and sprinkled it on her son’s face, after which he opened his eyes.

Police rushed the three to Deen Dayal Upadhaya hospital but Srivastav was past saving by then. Priyan is still recuperating in a private hospital. “I can identify the driver who left us there to die. I think the mini-truck driver was working with him. I hope the police arrest him,” a grieving Sushma said, adding that the auto driver was probably in his 20s.

Police have filed an FIR but have yet to make any arrests.