The victim, Richa Mishra, was a student of Jeevan Jyoti Secondary School.
A 17-year-old promising baseball player died after she was run over by a tractor in northeast Delhi’s Khajoori Khas on Saturday. Police have identified the girl as Richa Mishra, a student of Jeevan Jyoti Secondary School.
According to police, she was taken to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival. Her brother, Aditya, said, “I did not see how the accident took place. But her head was crushed by the tractor and she lost a lot of blood.”
Police said they have arrested the tractor driver, Ankit Kumar. “He has been charged under IPC sections 279 (rash driving) and 304-(a) (causing death by negligence) at Khajoori Khas police station. The case has been handed over to the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, under an ASI-rank officer, for further investigation,” a police officer said. Her father, who works as a security officer with the Ministry of External Affairs and was posted in Kuwait, returned from his posting after he heard about the accident. But by the time her father arrived, police said the post-mortem was completed and her final rites were conducted.
Richa’s family claimed that she had won several national-level baseball games and competitions in Delhi, Kerala, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. On the day of the accident, Richa came home after writing her Class XII board exam and went out with her brother to buy items for a religious ceremony. “A Bhagwat Katha ceremony was being organised in our locality so our parents wanted us to buy some items. Richa insisted on going by herself but I decided to accompany her,” said Aditya.
The two of them headed out on a scooty to Shorpur market in Sadatpur Extension. Aditya said he entered a store to buy the items while his sister waited outside, holding her helmet in her hand. Police said they have not been able to track down anyone who witnessed the accident. A passerby noticed the girl lying unconscious and made a PCR call. In the meantime, the girl was taken in an autorickshaw to GTB hospital.
Bystanders caught hold of the driver and handed him over to police. Police said the accused was driving in a rash and negligent manner.