The incident occurred in Mankhurd after the 30-year-old ran over the boy, who was sleeping on the road, while he was reversing the truck; accompanying cleaner also arrested
In their attempt to cover their tracks, a truck driver and his cleaner dumped the body of a 14-year-old boy into a nullah after he got crushed under their truck when the driver was backing up.
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The incident occurred in Mankhurd around 3.30 am yesterday. The arrested accused driver Rafiq Kamar Ahmad Khan (30) and cleaner Aslam Khan (38) claimed they did not see Nasir Shaikh sleeping on the road before reversing, and that his death was an accident.
Representational pic
Cop speak
Senior Inspector Vilas Kanade, from Mankhurd police station, said, “Since it was dark, the truck driver was unable to spot the boy sleeping on the road. The boy’s head was crushed under the vehicle’s rear wheels, while it was reversing after collecting scrap from a local dealer.”
According to other police officials, investigation revealed that Nasir was a rag-picker and a drug addict. He lived on the footpath with his family. “He dozed off on the road after doing drugs.
After realising that they had accidentally run over the teenager, Rafiq and Aslam panicked and decided to conceal their crime. They fled the spot after dumping Nair’s body in a nearby nullah,” Kanade said.
How they were nabbed
It was the locals who informed the police control room after they spotted Nasir’s body in the morning. It took a while for the police to establish his identity, as Nasir had nothing on him.
“We started questioning locals, as the boy belonged to the same area. Investigations revealed that Nasir was a junkie. Locals also said that a lot of trucks would visit the area in the wee hours every day,” Kanade added.
Based on this information, police picked up all the drivers and cleaners visiting the area. It was during their interrogation that Rafiq and Aslam confessed to their crime.
Both were booked under Sections 304A (death by negligence) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code, and are currently in police custody.