New Delhi: A senior official of the Union Ministry of Finance was killed and three people, including his wife, were injured after a BMW allegedly hit his motorcycle near Delhi Cantonment metro station on Ring Road here on Sunday, police said.
The deceased was identified as Navjot Singh (52), Deputy Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and a resident of Hari Nagar, they added.
Police said three PCR calls were received in the afternoon about a traffic jam near metro pillar number 67 on the Dhaula Kuan-Delhi Cantt stretch. A team rushed to the scene and found a BMW X5 lying sideways on the road, along with a motorcycle parked near the road divider.
Eyewitnesses told police that a woman was driving the car when it hit the motorcycle from behind.
Singh was driving the motorcycle, and his wife was riding pillion. They were rushed to a hospital in a taxi by the woman and her husband, who were in the BMW. The front portion of the car was severely damaged due to the impact of the collision, according to eyewitnesses.
Later, police were informed by the hospital where Singh and his wife were taken that he succumbed to injuries, while his wife, 50, was undergoing treatment.
Police said the BMW driver and her husband, who runs a business, are residents of Gurugram. The couple also sustained injuries in the accident and has been hospitalised. Their statements are yet to be recorded.
“The BMW and the motorcycle involved in the accident have been seized. The spot was examined by a crime team and experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory were called in for assistance. An FIR is being registered in the matter and an investigation is underway,” a senior police officer said.
Traffic movement in the area was disrupted for some time, but was restored after the damaged vehicles were removed from the road.
Singh’s son said his parents were returning from Bangla Sahib Gurdwara and stopped at Karnataka Bhawan to eat.
“They were on their way to Hari Nagar via Dhaula Kuan when the incident happened. Instead of taking them to a nearby hospital, they were taken to a hospital nearly 22 km from the accident site. My mother suffered a head injury, even though she was wearing a helmet, and a fractured femur,” he told PTI Videos.
He also alleged negligence on the part of the hospital authorities in admitting his parents.
He claimed that his mother was made to sit in the lobby at the hospital despite her serious condition, while the husband of the BMW driver, who suffered minor injuries, was immediately admitted.
“Because of this negligence and delay, my father was declared dead, and my mother kept screaming in pain,” he added.
The family later shifted her to Venkateshwara Hospital for better treatment. “My mother, who is a teacher, is devastated, and so are we,” he said.
BMW driver taken into police custody
The woman who allegedly drove the BMW car that hit a motorcycle here, killing a senior finance ministry official, has been taken into custody after being discharged from the hospital on Monday, police said.
Police have registered a case of culpable homicide in the matter under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 125B (acts endangering life or personal safety of others), 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender).
Despite repeated pleas, accused took us to far away hospital
The wife of the senior government official killed in a collision between their motorcycle and a luxury car near the Delhi Cantonment Metro station had repeatedly pleaded with the accused couple to get them admitted to a nearby hospital, but to no avail, according to the FIR lodged in the case.
“The lady took us to a small hospital in GTB Nagar, far from the accident site,” the bereaved woman told police in a statement, which is now part of the FIR.
In her statement to police, Navjot Singh’s wife, Sandeep Kaur, said, “I was constantly requesting them to take us to the nearest hospital as my husband was unconscious and needed immediate treatment. Instead, the lady took us to a small hospital in GTB Nagar. That lady told me her name was Gagan Preet Kaur.”
“My husband was wearing a turban at the time of the crash. But I was wearing a helmet. The crash occurred around 1 pm on Sunday,” she was quoted as saying in the FIR.
(The copy has been updated with latest information)
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