New Delhi: The Punjab Police Tuesday arrested a man whose SUV allegedly struck 114-year-old Fauja Singh—believed to be the world’s oldest marathoner—on a highway in his native Jalandhar district a day earlier.
Police said the suspect, Amritpal Singh Dhillon, a 26-year-old Non-Resident Indian (NRI) from Jalandhar’s Dasuwal village, was allegedly driving the vehicle. The Jalandhar Rural district police have seized the Toyota Fortuner SUV.
Based on a complaint from Fauja Singh’s son Harvinder Singh, the Jalandhar Rural Police have registered an FIR under sections 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 105 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.
Police said Fauja Singh, a British national with roots in Jalandhar’s Beas village, who was famous for his long marathon running, was hit by the SUV driven by Dhillon on the Jalandhar Pathankot national highway Monday afternoon. They added that he was going to a dhaba near a national highway crossing his native village, Beas, in the district and succumbed to injuries in a city hospital.
“The unknown driver while driving his vehicle at a high speed and carelessly hit my father Fauja Singh directly due to which my father fell down on the road very badly due to which my father suffered severe injuries in his head and other parts of the body (sic),” the FIR quoted Harvinder Singh as saying.
He said they arranged a ride and brought Fauja Singh to Shriman Hospital Jalandhar, where he died during treatment.
“If the vehicle had been stopped from running away, the deceased Fauja Singh could have received medical treatment and his life could have been saved (sic),” the FIR further said.
Senior police officers, including SSP Harvinder S. Virk, examined the spot, according to eyewitnesses, Singh was hit by the SUV at a high speed.
Police officers had their task cut out since there was no CCTV on the stretch where the accident took place, but the vehicle was eventually traced by Tuesday afternoon, along with its registration number.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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Extremely unfortunate. This is no way for anyone, leave alone a sweet elderly person like Mr. Fauja Singh, to die. The suspect, if found guilty, should receive a long jail sentence.