How truck that crushed cousins entered Lutyens’ Delhi on night of accident

The entry of trucks is prohibited in the New Delhi area, but Delhi traffic police issues No Entry Permits in certain cases, such as for civic work or transportation of essential commodities. These permits for heavy vehicles are renewed annually.

In this case, the permit for the truck was issued in December last year and is valid till this year-end. “It is possible that when the no-entry challans were issued, the permit had not been updated in the traffic police database. Due to this delay, the two challans were issued when the truck entered the New Delhi area,” the officer said.

A senior officer from Delhi Traffic Police said this appeared to be a technical error that is now being rectified so that no-entry permits are updated on the website as soon as they are issued.

The accident took place at central Delhi’s Ashoka Road around 10.30 pm on Monday

A Tragic Road Crash

Cousins Yagya Bhatia (20) and Abhav (14) were crushed by a truck on Ashoka Road when they were returning to their west Delhi home after watching an IPL match between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The loss of two young lives sparked massive outrage, and many questioned how a truck was playing in the high-security Lutyens’ Delhi zone.

The truck, CCTV footage has shown, did not stop after hitting the bike and fled as the cousins died on the road.

Police tracked down the truck to East Delhi’s Shakarpur on the same day, but the driver had escaped. Police teams are conducting raids in Bihar to arrest him. The truck owner and a helper in the vehicle have been detained.

The victims’ family has alleged that no help reached them for quite some time after the accident, even though the spot was just metres from the Delhi Police Headquarters and other key offices.

The police have said that at the time of the accident, the truck was transporting construction materials from the New Delhi area.