Quick Commerce Delivery Exec Dies After Car Hit His E-Scooter

New Delhi: A 25-year-old delivery executive working with Zepto died after allegedly being hit by a car in west Delhi's Tilak Nagar early on Saturday. The accused, a contractor with Municipal Corporation of Delhi, was arrested, but has got bail.The deceased was identified as Hem Shankar, a resident of Raghubir Nagar in west Delhi. His family alleged that after the collision, Shankar was dragged by the accused for several metres. The family said Shankar was travelling from Subhash Nagar to Mayapuri via Rajouri Garden for a delivery when the incident occurred.
Police suspect that the accused, Mohit Kumar, a 27-year-old resident of Najafgarh, was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. His blood sample has been sent for testing, they said.A PCR call was received at 3.26am, reporting the accident near the red light close to Subhash Nagar metro station on Najafgarh Road, towards Rajouri Garden. When police reached the spot, both the car and the victim's electric scooter involved in the collision were found there. Shankar was already shifted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Sources claimed that the car was speeding when it took a sharp left turn and struck the e-scooter, flinging it away. The car then hit a pole and finally came to a stop after crashing into a drain cover. Deputy commissioner of police (west) Darade Sharad Bhaskar said eyewitnesses told police that the Hyundai Verna car allegedly hit Shankar's e-scooter from behind, causing the rider to fall and sustain critical injuries. An FIR has been registered.Preliminary investigation suggests that the car struck the scooter from the rear, though further inquiry is under way to ascertain the exact circumstances of the crash, said an officer. The accused was returning home from a wedding in Dwarka with his friend, he added. A person who was at a nearby petrol pump said he heard a loud noise and rushed to the spot. He claimed that the car was being driven at a high speed and dragged the victim for a considerable distance. Police said a mechanical inspection of the car would be carried out to find out if it was speeding.Videos recorded after the incident showed that the airbags were deployed, the front of the car was severely damaged and both the windscreen and the rear window were broken. The e-scooter was also destroyed. Shankar's relative, Surender, told TOI that the family had received a call from locals informing them about the accident. "One of the locals managed to unlock his phone and contacted his brother. They then took him to a hospital in a car," he said.Surender also alleged that the car was driven at a high speed and Shankar was dragged for several metres after being hit. According to him, the impact was so severe that all the airbags in the car deployed and the vehicle continued to move until it got stuck in a cemented cover of a structure. By that time, the victim had sustained critical injuries, he added.An official of the quick commerce service platform said, "We take care of everything in such cases. The insurance cover offers financial support."According to an MCD official, the accused was not its employee, but a contractor. There is also no clarity on which department he belongs to and MCD has no role in the matter, he clarified.