On Thursday evening, 12-year-old Sujith, who just returned from school, went to buy some chocolates from a shop near his house in Nallappally in Palakkad district of Kerala. However, according to reports, while crossing the road, he was hit by a car. The locals in the area, who witnessed the accident, managed to stop the car from fleeing the scene. The locals insisted that the car, which had five passengers, including the driver, take the boy to a hospital.

Sujith’s neighbour Paraman reached the spot by then and agreed to accompany them to take Sujith to hospital. The class seven boy was taken to hospital even before anybody could alert the parents, who were at home at the time of the incident. On the way to the hospital, and after travelling one kilometre, the driver reportedly told Paraman that the vehicle’s tyre got punctured. The driver then allegedly asked him to get down with the injured boy.

According to Paraman, Sujith was bleeding badly when they were asked to get out of the vehicle. By the time Paraman managed to hail another vehicle to go to the hospital, Sujith succumbed to his injuries and died.

According to Paraman, the incident took place around 5 pm and Sujith succumbed to his injuries by 6.30 pm when they reached Athani hospital in Palakkad.

“After I got down, I managed to get an omni van after some time and took him to the hospital. Since I was tensed at the time, I did not check whether the tyre of the car that hit him was punctured, as the driver claimed. As the child was bleeding, they might have understood his situation was critical and they wanted to escape. None of the other passengers in the vehicle accompanied me to the hospital, I was alone,” he told media after the incident.

He also alleged that though he asked the driver to take them to a nearby hospital, which was about three kilometres away, he drove in the direction of another hospital, which is 10 kilometres away. “The child was finally taken to Athani hospital in Palakkad,” Paraman told the media.

According to the Kasaba police in Palakkad, the tyre of the vehicle was not punctured. “A person named Nasar was driving the car. He is in our custody and we will record his arrest soon. The people in the car were the owner’s friends, all natives of Malappuram. They were all friends,” Unnikrishnan Kasaba Station House Officer.

The police have identified that the vehicle was owned by Ashraf of Puthanathani, a resident of Malappuram. The Kasaba police took the car into custody. The car was reportedly brought to the station by its owner.