3 killed on DME: Ghaziabad police files suo motu FIR blaming driver, NHAI staff

On the day of the incident, the traffic police had squarely blamed the NHAI control room staff and also the errant truck driver

The Ghaziabad police has registered a suo motu first information report (FIR) in the death of three Delhi residents who were killed after their two-wheeler crashed into a stationary truck parked on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) early Sunday morning. The FIR has blamed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the truck driver for the deaths, senior officers said on Tuesday.

Senior police officers also suspended the Masuri police station personnel, who allegedly withheld information from the sub-inspector, while registering the FIR. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The three men were triple riding on the two-wheeler when their speeding scooter crashed into the rear end of one of two trucks parked on the DME near Masuri around 3am, police said.

The deceased were identified as Bittu alias Vikas Kumar, 21, and Anshu Singh, 30, both residents of Trilokpuri, Delhi, and the third as Vipin Bhatt, 25, from New Ashok Nagar, Delhi.

The trucks, parked on the Ghaziabad-Meerut carriageway, had arrived there 22 minutes before the two-wheeler crashed into one of them, officers said.

“Even after the accident, neither the NHAI control room for DME nor the patrol vehicle took steps to get the trucks removed. Further, they did not make any effort to stop the two-wheeler, the entry of which is banned on the DME. Had the staff of the DME taken steps to remove the stationary trucks or stopped the two-wheeler, three lives could have been saved,” said Pradeep Singh, police sub-inspector (SI) in the FIR.

The FIR has been registered at Masuri police station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 106(1) (causing death by rash or negligent act) and section 122 (leaving a vehicle at rest on any public place in a way as to cause or likely to cause danger) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Senior police officers also suspended the Masuri police station personnel, who allegedly withheld information from the sub-inspector, while registering the FIR.

“We suspended the personnel and an inquiry will be initiated. Some of the facts not mentioned in the FIR will be included in the case investigation. The truck driver and the NHAI staff in the control room were named in the FIR for negligence. Police registered an FIR suo motu due to technicalities involved in the case,” said Surendra Nath Tiwari, deputy commissioner of police (rural zone).

When HT contacted Shikha Kumari, sister of deceased Bittu, to know why none of the family members filed a police complaint, she declined to elaborate. “I don’t have much information about the FIR,” she said.

The National Highways Authority of India officials did not respond to calls and messages seeking a comment on the matter.

On the day of the incident, the traffic police had squarely blamed the NHAI control room staff and also the errant truck driver.

“There are NHAI vans patrolling the expressway and they make routine rounds of the stretch to prevent such accidents. The control room of the NHAI did not send us any alert about the men riding triple on the expressway. The authority just sends us e-challans of vehicles violating traffic norms,” Piyush Kumar Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (traffic), had said on Sunday.

The errant truck driver fled with his vehicle soon after the accident and teams are trying to trace him, said police.