NEW DELHI: A 55-year-old man was mowed down by a speeding Mercedes car in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar late on Thursday. The errant driver, Aryan Jain (19), left the car and fled the spot. He was arrested on Friday afternoon and later released on bail. His medical examination revealed no presence of alcohol in his body.
Aryan’s father, Sushil Jain, is a diamond exporter and has a shop in a mall in Saket. The deceased, Antony Joseph, was on his way home after dropping his son at his relative’s house. His wife works as a cook in the residence of an American embassy official. He had lost his job during the pandemic and was currently unemployed.
Joseph was on his way home on his scooter when he was hit by the Mercedes
Joseph’s son, Simon, who was at a hospital to receive his father’s body, said they had lost the main pillar of their family. “I have no words to express our loss. The condition of the scooter made me feel the amount of pain that my father would have gone through before his death. The accused should get the maximum permissible punishment. My father had dropped me to my uncle’s house and was returning home when the accident occurred,” he added.
Police got a call around 11.45pm about a scooter rider being run over by a speeding Mercedes in Vasant Vihar.
DCP (Southwest) Ingit Pratap Singh said, “Joseph was from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. The family lived in the servant’s quarters of the American embassy official’s house where his wife worked as a cook. Aryan is pursuing his education from UK. He was driving the vehicle with a learner’s licence. We conducted his medical examination and no alcohol was found in his blood.” However, as per the learner’s licence norms, the car did not have ‘L’ written on it.
A probe has revealed that Aryan and two of his friends had stepped out for a drive 15 minutes prior to the accident, which occurred near the A-Block market while they were returning to their residence in the same area. Joseph was crushed under the wheels of the car.