Bus rams into slum dwellers sleeping on footpath at Delhi’s Karol Bagh, 9 injured

The police said they received a PCR call at around 9:22 am regarding an accident in which a cluster bus on the route from Nangloi to Old Delhi railway station hit pavement settlers on the Rohtak road.

The injured pavement dwellers were identified as Kela Devi, 70; Sunita, 30; Aarti, 30; Anjali; Asha Devi; Chand Khan; Mangat Ram, and the minor boy named Aryaman.

A bus passenger, identified as Ramesh, was also injured. “All are stable and being treated at the RML Hospital,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Shweta Chauhan said.

The DCP said the driver of the bus, identified as Rajkumar Sarin, 49, a resident of Tagore Garden Extension, was arrested in the case after he fled the spot.

The police registered a case under Indian Penal Code sections 279 (rash driving) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety) at the Anand Parbat police station.

The injured persons live in a nearby JJ cluster and the bus, which was at high speed, rammed into a car and then crashed into them, an officer said.

The officer added: “The driver was not inebriated at the time of the incident and a spot check of the vehicle will also be carried out to check if there are any possibilities of failure in brakes.”

Akash, kin of one of the victims, said: “My aunt and a few other slum residents were sleeping on the pavement as there is not enough space to sleep inside the jhuggi when around 9 am, a bus suddenly crashed into them…it was all so sudden. All of us, the other residents, then took them out from under the bus.”