Day after BMW crash: Rage, tears in two Jaipur households; sigh of relief at one

‘We were calling on his cellphone until about 4 am. Then it fell silent,’ say family members of Vishnu who died in mishap

Police officers inspect the car, Saturday. (Source: Rohit Jain Paras)

Now 28, Jaipur resident Harish Kumar was six years old when he lost his father to an accident. On Saturday, it was as close to a feeling of deja vu as it can get. “Since my father’s death my uncle, Vishnu Das, had been the father I had lost — he had brought me up,” Harish said. “Now he has also been taken away…. In the mortuary, his body was so crushed that we could barely recognise him.”

It was hours after Das, 45, who plied his trade of readymade garments from a small cart at Ramganj, in Jaipur’s old city, had died, crushed along with two others by a BMW car, allegedly driven by Independent Rajasthan MLA Nandkishore Maharia’s son Siddharth. For the victims’ family members and relatives, life was getting redefined — after being altered irretrievably.

On Friday, with Eid round the corner, it was a busy night for Vishnu Das. Business was brisk, and he wound up work past midnight. Not very far away from where Das had set up his cart, the scene was no different at Shanti Footwear. Having wrapped up work, Jaithanand, 31, and Anil Soni, 21, apprentices at the shop and friends, left for home together, according to witnesses.

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Das didn’t know the duo. The three met near Johri Bazaar and took a shared three-wheeler for home — at Mansarovar in south Jaipur.

At 1.20 am, Saturday, the BMW sped in and rammed into their autorickshaw. Das, Jaithanand and the autorickshaw driver, identified only as Kailash, died. Anil survived miraculously, escaping with some serious injuries, and asking for his friend, Jaithanand.

At Das’s home, nephew Dev Kumar, 38, said Vishnu was the sole earner in his family of six. “He is survived by wife, son Naveen (14), daughters Ina (13) and Gudiya (10), and mother Kalawati Devi, who is 90,” he said. “He usually returned latest by midnight, but since Eid was around, he was returning late for the last few days.

“We were calling on his cellphone until about 4 am. Then it fell silent. It had been switched off,” Kumar said.

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Das’s mother and wife were informed about the incident only on Saturday evening.

At Jaithanand’s house, his enraged sister Priya breathed fire: “Justice will be delivered only with his (Siddharth’s) death.”

Mahesh Kumar, 28, husband of Asha, sister of Priya and Jaithanand, said the siblings’ parents are old, and the family only wants “justice”.

The reaction was predictably the opposite at Anil Soni’s house. The family was just thankful for the “miracle”.

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His father Reva Chandra said: “When Anil didn’t get home till very late, we called up the shopowner. Around 3 am or so, we were told that Anil had met with an accident. We went to the hospital and found him in a daze…he only kept asking about Jaithanand.”

Chandra said the youth has sustained severe injuries to his skull and his whole body is marked with bruises and injuries. “He remained unconscious for most of Saturday. We brought him home in the evening.”

The police said efforts are on trace relatives of the autorickshaw driver.

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