Out to celebrate his 19th birthday, DU student killed in accident; police say driver was trying to change music

Two of the occupants, Aishwary Pandey and Aishwarya Mishra (19), were admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital. Pandey, who had been severely wounded in his head, succumbed to injuries in the evening. He was from Ashok Nagar in UP’s Etawah.

Mishra, a second-year student of DU’s Dyal Singh College, was later taken to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital after his father arrived from Etawah in the afternoon.

The other three — DU students Keshav Chauhan, Krishna Verma and Ujjawal Singh — sustained minor injuries.

Mishra, Pandey and Chauhan shared a flat on rent in Laxmi Nagar.

DCP (North) Manoj Meena said they received a call at 6 am that a vehicle had met with an accident on the road from Shanti Van to Geeta Colony. Meena said they found that Pandey was out to celebrate his birthday with his friends.

Pandey, Mishra and Chauhan   — a second-year student at Dyal Singh — rented the car for the night from Shadipur, police said.

“They picked up Krishna, 18, a student of Motilal Nehru College, from Saket, and Ujjawal, 19, a student at Dyal Singh College, from Chhattarpur, and drove to a pub in Gurgaon,” said Meena.

After the celebration, they left the pub in the early hours of Thursday. On their way back, Mishra, who was at the wheel, attempted to change a song on his mobile phone and lost control of the vehicle on the Geeta Colony flyover, said the DCP.

“The car was going from Shanti Van signal towards Geeta Colony. Near the ISBT Slip Road at 5.52 am, it collided with a divider. A case under rash driving has been lodged in the matter against unknown persons,” said the DCP.

Chauhan, meanwhile, told police he was sitting in the passenger seat. Krishna was in the back seat, sitting in the middle, while Ujjawal was to his left. Pandey was also sitting behind.

A friend of the family said Pandey’s parents had died a few years ago.

“Aishwary’s father, a supervisor in Dabur Ghaziabad, died six years ago. His mother, a school teacher, died three years later in an accident… she was riding a scooter at the time,” said 48-year-old Pradeep Awasthi, a friend of Pandey’s uncle.

A printing press mechanic, Awasthi said he got a call about the accident on Thursday morning while he was on his way to Noida from his residence in Dayal Ganj. “It was his birthday today. He had called his uncle yesterday morning to ask for some money to throw a party.”

‘He came to Delhi just 15 days ago to join college’: Victim’s uncle

Pandey’s uncle, Vachaspati Dwivedi, who lives in UP’s Etawah, said, “He arrived in the city just 15 days ago to start college at Delhi University. He was a bright student.”

“We didn’t want to send him away. Since his parents died, we treated him like our own child… He was first allotted Dyal Singh College but then got admission at Deshbandu College following an upgrade,” he added.

Mishra’s father called Dwivedi about the accident. “Amarnath Mishra, the father of Aishwarya Mishra, called me this morning and informed me about the accident. While he left for Delhi via Shatabdi, I came by road,” said Dwivedi.

He also said his nephew had an “interest in campus politics”.

Dwivedi recalled the death of the teen’s parents. “First his father died, then his mother died in an accident… she was in a coma for a week… and now even Aish is gone…”

Staff at Lok Nayak Hospital, where Pandey died, said his death was due to a brain haemorrhage. “The crash severely damaged his skull… he also had multiple fractures in his face,” a medical staff said.

Meanwhile, Mishra was moved out of Ganga Ram at 9.50 pm by his father to another city hospital, said sources.