Five persons, including a couple and their two teenaged children, were killed and four others injured after a speeding dumper rammed into their SUV early on Wednesday, police said.
The accident occurred on NH 24 near Mayur Vihar in east Delhi when members of the Zaidi family, who have a garment business in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut city, were returning home after picking up some visiting relatives from the IGI airport here.
"The deceased have been identified as Qamar Abbas Zaidi, 55, his wife, Anjum Fatima Zaidi, 50, their son Azhar Abbas Zaidi, 18, daughter Juhi Abbas Zaidi, 14 and their neighbour Maimajuddin, 36, who was driving the Innova car," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police R. Sathiyasundaram told IANS.
"The injured have been identified as Anjum Fatima Zaidi, 35, a resident of Tehran, her son Ali Mohammad Zaidi, 13, Sukena Fatima Zaidi, 7 and Abbas Mehdi Zaidi, 16, son of Qamar Abbas Zaidi," he added.
The four have been admitted to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where Abbas Mehdi Zaidi was reported to be out of danger.
Police said that the Anjum Fatima who was killed was the elder sister of the Anjum Fatima who was injured and both shared the same name.
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The younger Anjum Fatima is the wife of Maulana Kalbe Abbas, living in Tehran, and had come with her son Ali Mohammad to India on a two-month break to meet her sister.
The Zaidi family in Meerut had hired the Innova car from their neighbour, Maimajuddin, who runs a car sale business to pick up their guests. They were on their way home early on Wednesday and had were on NH 24 near Mayur Vihar Phase-II, when the speeding loaded dumper, coming from the opposite side, crashed through the divider and rammed into the SUV.
Such was the impact of the collision that the Innova was dragged a few meters before somersaulting through the air multiple times before crashing to the ground.
The driver of the dumper, which bore the registration number of Haryana, fled, leaving the vehicle behind.
A case has been registered against the driver and raids are being conducted to nab him, the officer added.
The family members at the LBS hospital's mortuary alleged that the dumper driver must have been drunk or had dozed off at the time of accident.
"The accused driver should be given the maximum punishment so that he would learn a lesson for spoiling the future of innocent children. The children and others have received multiple head injuries and limb fractures," said a family member.
Mohammad Sohib, the brother of the Zaidi sisters, told IANS that the SUV was so mangled that the police and fire officers had to use gas cutters to extricate the injured and the dead.
"It is a big trauma for our whole family," said Sohib who hails from Meerut's Mawana town.
--IANS
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