Three men were killed after a mini-bus crashed into a stationary Thar SUV and a motorcycle near an exit on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway in Ghaziabad’s Vijay Nagar early Friday, police said.
The accident happened around 6am on the Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway of the DME, and two men in the SUV and the biker were killed, police said.
Officers from Vijay Nagar police station identified the two men in the SUV as Naveen Kumar Verma, 35, a resident of East Jawahar Nagar, Loni Border (Ghaziabad), and Naveen’s brother-in-law Deepak Sadana, 30, a resident of Malik Colony, Rudrapur, Uttarakhand.
The rider, who was from a bike-hailing service, was identified as Yogesh Kumar, 25, who lived in Delhi and hailed from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.
Dharam Pal, station house officer, Vijay Nagar police station, said the bus driver was identified as Virender Kumar, 32, and he was arrested following a complaint given by Naveen’s family.
The FIR was registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 281 (rash and negligent driving), 106 (causing death by rash or negligent acts not amounting to culpable homicide), and 324(4) (causing loss and damage).
“The two men stopped their SUV on the roadside and were standing next to the vehicle. They were talking to the biker, and were probably asking for directions. A speeding mini-bus crashed into the three men, critically injuring them. Police rushed them to a hospital, where all three were declared dead. We don’t know why they had stopped; as all three had stopped,” said Upasana Pandey, ACP, Vijay Nagar circle.
The family members of the two deceased men in the SUV said both Naveen and Deepak had left their Loni home around 12.30am on Friday to go to Uttarakhand to drop Deepak home.
“They left Delhi in Deepak’s Thar SUV and took the DME stretch towards Ghaziabad to go to Rudrapura in Uttarakhand. While on the DME, they heard some noise from the rear of the SUV, and stopped near the exit to check. A biker also stopped beside them, possibly to help them. Just then, a speeding mini-bus crashed into them from behind. Naveen was operating a travel business in Jawahar Nagar. We received information from the police and rushed to the spot,” said Neeraj Verma, Naveen’s older brother.
The SHO said that there were 26 women passengers in the bus who were going from Tilak Nagar in Delhi to Haridwar.
“None of the women suffered any major injuries. The bus driver was taken into custody and later the driver was arrested. The exact sequence of events will be clear once we get access to the CCTV footage,” Pal said.
The police said that the SUV suffered damage on the rear while the bike did not suffer any damage.