2 Delhi students killed, 3 injured in car crash after birthday party

Two persons, including a 20-year-old Delhi University (DU) student, were killed and three others injured as their car, which was allegedly speeding, crashed into a divider on the Ring Road in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar in the early hours of Sunday, police said.

Police said that other than the driver, none of the occupants of the car were wearing seatbelts and as a result they were thrown out of the car due to the impact of the crash.

Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Meghna Yadav said that the car’s driver, who was injured in the crash, is currently in police custody. We are awaiting the results of a medical examination to ascertain if the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol, DCP Yadav said.

“The man, who was driving the car, was medically examined to ascertain if he was drunk. The report is awaited. Action would be taken as per law if his medical report confirms alcohol intake. A case of rash driving and death by negligence under sections 279 and 304 A of Indian Penal Code was registered at the Vivek Vihar police station,” said the deputy commissioner of police.

The accident took place around 5.30am on the stretch between Anand Vihar railway station and Dishad Garden, just 100 metres before the Dilshad Garden underpass.

According to police, the car — a white Honda City — climbed on to the road divider, uprooted an electric pole and the divider’s iron railings before it came back on the road and hit a pavement around 50metres ahead where it finally overturned.

All the occupants were rushed to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Dilshad Garden, where two of them were declared dead on arrival, police said.

Those killed were identified by the police as 18-year-old Prabhjot Singh from north Delhi’s Malkaganj, and 20-year-old Rubel, a third year student of DU’s Daulat Ram College. The injured persons were identified by the police as 19-year-old, Arshpreet Kaur, also a DU student. The condition of Kaur and one more occupant, 21-year-old Keshav, is critical. The driver of the car, 23-year-old Lakshya Malhotra, was discharged from the hospital, and is currently in police custody, an officer said.

Staff at a petrol pump, located opposite the accident spot, said that the car appeared to be travelling at speeds exceeding 100km per hour before the crash.

“The impact of the crash was so powerful that all the doors of the car were thrown open and except the driver, all the four occupants were flung outside. The woman who died landed on the road opposite the accident spot. Two men were lying near the road’s divider. Another woman was lying injured near the pavement where the car had overturned,” said an employee of the petrol pump, who did not wish to be identified.

Another staffer at the petrol pump said that some passersby and his colleagues apprehended the driver, who they said suffered minor injuries and was trying to flee the accident spot. “We found some alcohol bottles and packets of cigarette at the accident spot and in the car as well,” the staffer said.

DCP Yadav, however, said that the police did not find any alcohol in the car.

According to police officials, the two women were friends and originally from Sirsa district in Haryana.

While Rubel lived in a paying guest accommodation in Mukherjee Nagar, Kaur stayed in a flat in Dilshad Garden, where the five had gathered to celebrate her birthday on Saturday night. The two men who survived are residents of north Delhi’s Kamla Nagar.

Prabhjot’s father Varender Singh said that his son and Keshav worked at a call centre owned by Lakshya’s family. The car is owned by Lakhsya’s family, the police said.