Pune: Nigdi police on Tuesday arrested the driver and helper of a PCMC garbage truck after it emerged the latter was behind the wheel, without a driving licence, when the vehicle ran over a five-year-old girl in Sainathnagar.It was a tragic sequence of events. Sanskruti Biradar was playing near her home in Audumbar Society around 12.15pm on Monday when the garbage truck hit a parked motorcycle, causing it to fall on the child. Police said Sanskruti then lost balance, fell on the ground and came under the wheels of the truck. She was pronounced dead on arrival by doctors at a private hospital in Nigdi.Investigations revealed on Tuesday that Rahul Chauhan (28), a resident of Chikhali, was operating the vehicle without a licence. “Driver Raju Gaikwad (38) of Nigdi knew Chauhan did not have a licence. Despite this, he was allowed behind the wheel,” said senior police inspector Mahesh Bansode of Nigdi police. Both Gaikwad and Chauhan have been arrested under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 281 (rash driving on a public way) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act.Sanskruti’s father, Bhagwat Biradar (36), runs a snack stall. Her mother, who is pregnant, is still in shock, Nigdi police said.“It was Chauhan’s negligent driving that caused the accident. Which is why we have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the both of them,” inspector Bansode said.
