NEW DELHI: A 10-year-old girl died after a speeding e-rickshaw hit her while she was returning home from school with her mother in east Delhi’s Ghazipur on Thursday afternoon. The impact of the collision was so severe that it threw the child into the path of a bus.Police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and have arrested the accused driver. The victim, Priyanshi Bisht, a Class 5 student and resident of Khoda Colony in Ghaziabad, was walking home with her mother around 1pm when the accident took place.Her family had moved from a village near Ranikhet in Uttarakhand’s Almora district around eight years ago in search of better educational opportunities for their children.Delhi Police said Priyanshi was walking on the side of the road facing oncoming traffic, while her mother was walking on the inner side, when an e-rickshaw being driven at high speed hit the girl.“The impact was so forceful that Priyanshi was flung forward and rammed into a bus. She suffered a severe head injury,” a police officer said.Her mother and residents rushed her to a hospital, where doctors declared her dead. The driver, identified as Uttam Singh (42), was returning home to Khoda when the accident occurred. Police said he fled after the crash but was traced and arrested. The e-rickshaw has been seized.The family has demanded strict action against the accused, alleging that the e-rickshaw was being driven recklessly. Dinesh Singh Bisht, Priyanshi’s uncle, said the family was looking forward to celebrating Raksha Bandhan together.“She had been excited for Raksha Bandhan. Her younger brother Ayush was eagerly waiting for her to tie him a rakhi. We had all planned to celebrate together, but everything changed in a moment,” he told TOI.He said Priyanshi’s father, Harish Bisht, moved to Delhi in the hope of giving his kids a better future.“My brother works as a helper in a bulb factory and spends whatever he earns on his children’s education. Priyanshi was one of the few in our family to study and her father wanted her to have a proper job. She loved going to school, enjoyed dancing and took part in extracurricular activities. Today, her mother is holding on to nothing but her uniform and shoes,” he said.A case has been registered under Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 281 (rash driving on a public way) of BNS at Ghazipur police station.
