SUV driver runs over girl in Pimple Gurav, held

PUNE: A six-year-old girl succumbed to injuries after she was run over by a sports utility vehicle (SUV) on Monday afternoon at Pimple Gurav.
The driver of the SUV took the girl to a nearby hospital, where the doctors pronounced her dead.

The girl has been identified as Lavanya Sachin Kadlag, who lived with her parents at Rutuja Heights in Ramnagar in Pimple Gurav.

The police have arrested the driver Dilip Shinde (31), a resident of Dnyanesh Park in Pimple Gurav, under the charges of causing death due to negligence. Shinde works as an engineer with a private company.

Alaka Sarag, the assistant inspector of the Sangvi police, told TOI that on Monday morning, Lavanya accompanied her parents to aa relative’s house in the Dnyanesh Park area to attend a wedding function. “In the afternoon, Lavanya was playing with a ball in the building along with the other children,” Sarag said.

While playing, the ball bounced out of the society premises. “Lavanya ran out of the building to retrieve the ball. When she was crossing a narrow lane near the building, the SUV, which was coming at a high speed, knocked her down. The girl sustained severe injuries due to the impact,” Sarag said.

Shinde took her to a nearby hospital. “Lavanya succumbed to her injuries in the hospital,” Sarag said.

On preliminary inspection, she said, the driver was completely responsible for the accident. “He should not have been driving the car at a such high speed in such a narrow lane,” she said.

Lavanya’s parents took her body to their native place to perform the last rites. “Her father, Sachin Kadlag, is a manager with the Maharashstra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL). Her mother is a homemaker,” the assistant inspector said.

According to Sarag, Lavanya had turned six just last month. Even her mother had her birthday in December, police said.