Birthday celebrations turn tragic as 2 students killed, 3 injured in Delhi car crash

New Delhi: Birthday celebration turned tragic after two students, including one from Delhi University, were killed and three others injured in a road accident on the Ring Road in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar in the early hours of Sunday.

The victims, who were out on a joyride after the celebration were not wearing seatbelt and were thrown out after their speeding car smashed into a divider and cut an electric pole into half.

“Even after hitting the pole, the car did not stop but bounced and hit the footpath and overturned. We all rushed to rescue the occupants,” said Mukesh, an auto mechanic to The Hindu.

The police told Hindustan Times that the driver, who was the only occupant wearing seatbelt and sustained severe injury, was taken into custody.

“The man, who was driving the car, was medically examined to ascertain if he was drunk. The report is awaited. The action would be taken as per the 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,” Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Meghna Yadav told Hindustan Times.

Some liquor bottles and cigarette packets were recovered from inside the car, NDTV reported.

All the occupants were then rushed to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Dilshad Garden, where two of them were declared brought dead, Hindustan Times reported.

The victims of the accident were identified 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.

19-year-old, Arshpreet Kaur, also a DU student and 21-year-old Keshav were injured. Both of them are critical. The 23-year-old driver, Lakshya Malhotra was later discharged from the hospital and sent to police custody, an officer told Hindustan Times.

All friends gathered at a flat in Dilshad Garden on Saturday to celebrate Arshpreet’s birthday. They partied all night and then around 5 am left to meet a friend in Surya Nagar. While returning to Dilshad Garden, Lakshya, who is also the owner of the vehicle, lost control leading to the tragic accident.

“Rubal was sitting on the front seat next to Lakshya while Keshav, Prabhjot and Arshpreet were sitting in the back. Prabhjot was in the middle,” said a police officer to The Hindu.

A CCTV footage has confirmed the accident and also showed that no other vehicle was involved.