6 youth die as truck rams their car on Gurgaon-Faridabad road

GURGAON: Six childhood friends returning from a party died when their car was hit by a truck from the rear on the Gurgaon-Faridabad road near Mangar a little past midnight Thursday.
The Alto carrying the youths — all in their early 20s — flipped a couple of times after being hit by the truck and got stuck in its undercarriage. The driver of the truck, registered in Rajasthan, fled the spot, leaving the vehicle behind.
The six youths were identified as Akash, Jatin, Baljeet, Sandeep, Vishal and Puneet. They grew up in the same Jawahar Nagar locality in Palwal and were engaged in small businesses to sustain their families, police said.
The friends had left for Gurgaon to celebrate the wedding of Baljeet, who tied the knot on January 22. They were on their way home when the accident occurred.
Puneet’s uncle, Suresh Mallah (47), was in another car a few metres behind the Alto.
“They had reached a petrol pump near the Mangar police outpost when a truck hurtling down the road crashed into their car. The truck hit the Alto with such force that the car flipped a few times before getting stuck between its two wheels,” said Suresh.
By the time a police team reached the spot with an ambulance, all six had died.
“The car was mangled. It was pulled out from under the truck and the bodies were sent to a hospital’s mortuary. They lost their lives in the prime of youth. The entire Jawahar Nagar locality is mourning their deaths,” said Suresh.
Amarjeet, an ASI attached to Dhauj police station, said efforts were on to trace the truck driver. “The truck’s bumper is badly damaged, which reinforces the allegation that it hit the car from behind. Prima facie, it looks like the fault of the truck driver. We are trying to trace him,” he added.
A case was registered against the truck driver under IPC Sections 279 (rash driving) and 304A (death in accident). The bodies were handed over to the families after an autopsies and they were cremated later on Friday.
Akash and Jatin, police said, were the only children of their parents. Jatin’s elder brother had died from an illness a few years ago and his father, too, passed away recently. Sandeep had two daughters, aged one and three years.