New Delhi: A day before a DTC bus crushed him to death on the Nangloi-Najafgarh Road, 32-year-old Ravi Kant Kumar was busy mapping out his daughter’s future. Sitting with his family in their rented home in Nangloi, the transport businessman had discussed plans for his six-year-old daughter’s education.Having moved from Bihar to Delhi years ago, Ravi had worked tirelessly to establish himself after the death of his parents. “His dream was to secure enough money to move his daughter from a local playschool into a good private school. He wanted her to have the education he never had,” his brother Shashi Kant told TOI, standing inside the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital’s mortuary.
Ravi’s dream died on Monday when his Scooty was crushed by the speeding DTC bus that dragged the businessman for 100 metres. Ravi was the sole breadwinner. His family now faces an uncertain future. “We had just celebrated his daughter’s sixth birthday. His wife and daughter are now left with no one,” Shashi said.Among the dead was also 39-year-old Kamal Jeet, a salesman who was the backbone for his elderly parents. He was heading to work at his elder brother’s company when the bus hit him. His father, Jitender, said Kamal was not just a provider, but a carer whose aspirations to earn more were driven by a sense of duty towards his ageing parents.In another hospital, 20-year-old Ruby was admitted. She was critically injured. A sales worker and a college student enrolled in IGNOU, Ruby was the source of stability for her family. She earned a modest Rs 13,000 a month that covered the rent and other expenses that her father, an e-rickshaw driver, could not meet alone. With 17 stitches on her head and barely able to speak, her recovery is now a race against financial ruin. Her mother, Savitri, said: “Her salary is our family’s only stable income, which has now been effectively cut off.”Aman, also injured, was riding the bike on which Ruby was the pillion rider. “After the bus hit us, the bike fell on us. A car was coming from behind. I somehow managed to pull her out before she was crushed,” Aman said. Amit, a bus driver who said he was nowhere near the spot, became a target of mob vandalism that followed the accident. The injured driver lay next to Ruby in hospital. His shirt was splattered with blood. “I was not near the bus that was involved. Suddenly, an angry group dragged me out of my bus. One man hit me on the head with a helmet.”
