Drunk driving that snuffed young life, parental dreams

Jaipur: Rajendra Keer (25) had come to Jaipur with the hope to give a sustainable future to his younger brother and help his old and ailing parents, but little did he know that he would soon become another figure in the increasing death toll caused by reckless driving in the city.

"Rajendra had a brother in school. He had shared the financial responsibility of the family when he was still a teenager. He was the sole breadearner r of his family," said Shambhu Dayal, a relative of Rajendra, who had come to SMS mortuary to collect his body and take it to Rajendra's home town of Sureli near Tonk.

Rajendra wanted to earn sufficient sum of money before the festival of Raksha Bandhan. "He was married four years ago and had told his father that he will earn enough to give his brother a good education. The family has been in shock ever since they got the information about Rajendra's demise," Dayal told TOI.

Rajendra and two of his friends Kamlesh (31) and Papu (32) were working as labourers in Mansarovar area of Jaipur when an allegedly drunk Uday Sharma ran over them.

Meanwhile, Phooli Devi, wife of Kamlesh Keer, who has been admitted into the SMS hospital's trauma unit after he sustained severe injuries, said that her husband had been toiling very hard and saved every bit of the money as the family has been facing financial troubles.

"We are farmers and we did not need to come to Jaipur if our agriculture farms had yielded good returns. He was compelled to come to Jaipur and work as a wage laborer," she said.

She added that unlike other laborers, Kamlesh rarely spent money on drinking liquor and sent money home regularly. "The guilty should be punished. Entire town is mourning the loss of Rajendra and injuries sustained by two others," she added.