Hyderabad: A school van rammed into a two-wheeler ahead of it in Bachupally, running over an eight-year-old girl, who was riding pillion on her way to school on Wednesday morning, killing her on the spot.
The incident took place near Dr Reddy’s establishment in Bachupally, when the girl’s father, who was riding the bike, slowed down due to a rain-battered road, the police said.
The girl was identified as Gunda Deekshitha, a Class 3 student at Delhi Public School. She was the eldest of two siblings, with the other identified as eight-month-old Shanvitha. She recently celebrated her birthday on July 18 in a grand affair, as she was the oldest of her generation on her mother’s side.
The father, Gunda Kishore, escaped with a shoulder injury and averted a head injury as he was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. The police said that following the collision, both the riders fell off the bike to the right and that in the process, the van ran over Deekshitha’s head, killing her on the spot.
Bachupally police station house officer (SHO) N. Suman Kumar said the van driver, Shaik Rahim, was booked in a case of rash driving and speeding. He was detained and the van was seized.
Parents holding girl’s body on road gives commuters pause
On a busy Wednesday morning, the sight of a couple sitting on the Bachupally Main Road, holding their infant daughter’s body, left passersby in tears and commuters to pause.
The girl’s family members said that Deekshitha, dressed in a white uniform, left with her father, but within five minutes, her mother Padma got a call from Kishore, informing her about the incident. Padma rushed to the spot with a neighbour’s help, only to find her daughter dead.
“Although both her parents were working, her father Kishore preferred to drop her at school and pick her up every day. He was so attached to her that he wanted to spend those few minutes also with her,” Deekshitha’s maternal uncle E. Vamsi Shiva Sai Ram told Deccan Chronicle.
He recollected that on Wednesday morning, Kishore playfully told Deekshitha that she could stay home as he would not be able to drop her, to which Deekshitha replied that she would take the school bus.
Sai Ram said that although there are six siblings in their family, Deekshitha was the first girl child in the family and was a favourite of all.
