A six-year-old girl had been killed and her grandmother injured when a fast-moving car struck the e-rickshaw they were travelling in, causing it to flip on Tuesday (February 17). The elderly woman has since revealed that no one stopped to help her as she begged for help while her granddaughter lay covered in blood in the affluent Delhi neighbourhood of Janakpuri. 

Police said on Thursday that the driver of the car was heading to work at the time of the crash and has been apprehended. The girl was travelling to school with her grandmother, Mercy Xavier (57), when the incident took place. Ms Xavier said the e-rickshaw driver was moving slowly, but a fast car hit the vehicle, and all three fell. “The e-rickshaw driver was driving very gently. Suddenly, a speeding white car collided with our e-rickshaw, and the three of us fell. I begged the car driver to take my baby to the hospital in his car. But he ran away,” she told news agency PTI.

The young girl’s mother said she received a call from a hospital staff member telling her about the accident and her mother’s desperate calls for help on the road that no one responded to.

“She stopped three to four vehicles and asked for help, but no one stopped,” the mother said. It was a nurse who took her daughter to the hospital with help from another person.

“If help had come sooner, maybe things would have been different,” she added.

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The local deputy commissioner of police, Darade Sharad Bhaskar, told HT that the girl was declared brain dead at the hospital, but her family moved her and her grandmother to Max Hospital in Dwarka, where she died from her injuries on Wednesday. Police said the child had several injuries to her head and chest, while Ms Xavier was hurt after falling on the road.

“During treatment, the victim was declared dead at Max Hospital, and her postmortem examination was conducted at DDU Hospital,” the DCP said.

Authorities said they have filed a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for causing death by negligence and rash driving against the car driver. The accused driver, identified as Sanjeev Dabas, a resident of Majra Dabas, was heading to work when the crash happened. He works as a lab assistant at a pathology laboratory, police said.

Neighbours described the young girl as a happy child: “Her grandmother would drop her off at school and pick her up. We’ve seen her. She was very cheerful. She has an older sister, and they live with their parents and grandparents,” Georgina, a neighbour, told the news agency.