‘My child died hungry. He didn’t eat anything that day’: Mother of teen crushed to death by Thar in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj

“No food had been cooked that day and Murshid was hungry… he had Hindi examination that day… he came home and told me that he will get samosas for everyone,” says Johana as she sits in her house’s makeshift balcony at the Dalit Ekta slum in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj.

Murshid didn’t have to go far. All he had to do was cross the road on his bicycle. But before he could make it to the other side, a black Thar crushed him under its wheels.

“My boy… my child… he died hungry. He didn’t eat anything that day,” says Johana, calling Murshid a “deeply considerate” child.

According to Murshid’s family, for 15-20 minutes after the accident, passersby took videos and photographs instead of getting him medical help.

“The spinal hospital (Indian Spinal Injuries Centre) is barely a kilometre away, they could have taken him… Someone who knew him finally came home and told us what had happened… we then took him to the hospital,” says Tarana, Murshid’s elder sister.

“He could have been saved if people had acted quickly,” says Johana.

The family claims they were never informed by the police that the person behind the wheel, Pooja Sehrawat, had been arrested and released on bail. “We have called them (the police) several times… I have lost count of how many times I have called asking for an update, but they keep saying that they are busy. When we go to the police station, they usher us out saying that they will call us when they have something to report,” said Tarana.

Since the last one week, a steady stream of mourners has been visiting the family.

Chand Beli, the mother of Murshid’s friend, says the boy was looking forward to a wedding in her family. “My son and Murshid had been making plans for a month… Murshid said he wanted to wear a shirt and coat to the wedding… He told me that he would make sure the water tanker provides enough water for the whole locality that day,” she says.

Saalim, a 10-year-old boy from the locality, reminisced how Murshid treated the slum’s children to samosas on August 15. “He would make us do march past and wrestle with us because he wanted to join the Army.”

To practice boxing, Murshid had tied a makeshift sparring bag on the branch of the Peepul tree that hung low over his balcony.

Tarana recalled his sense of humour and how he would mouth dialogues and act cool in front of the camera while making reels on the phone.

“On the day he died, he helped Jamil kabadiwala load some things on his rickshaw… Jamil gave him a brand new pair of sneakers for it,” she says, pointing to a pair of grey and white sneakers resting on the shoe rack.

“He came home, kept the shoes and said he is going to fetch some samosas… the next time I saw him, he was bleeding out on the road,” Tarana says.

For Johana, the fight is now to get justice for Murshid. “I am not angry or sad… I am just desperate. I want justice for my child’s death.”

From the homepage

Rs 80 paid for every fraud voter deletion application in Aland seat, finds Karnataka SIT

Dalit man in Lucknow forced to ‘lick ground’ over urination claim, allege kin; accused arrested

Bengal SIR ahead, TMC cranks up rank and file: ‘Go with BLOs, check deletion of voters’