DU student mowed down in Rohini while delivering newspapers

NEW DELHI: When the city was just waking up on Saturday, 19-year-old Risal Singh embarked on his daily routine, cycling his way in the colony delivering newspapers to the residents of Rohini in northwest Delhi.
At 6.30am that day, police received a distress call about an accident and reached the spot to find that an unidentified vehicle had struck down the young BA student.
The cops found a mangled bicycle, broken into two parts, at the red light near the RTO office in Sector 15-16, Rohini. The youthful victim, later identified as Singh, was taken to hospital in a PCR van, but the medical team pronounced him dead on arrival.
Singh lived with his family in Budh Vihar Phase 2 and was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of Open Learning at DU.
He worked as a newspaper delivery boy to give his family a stable income because his father, as his uncle Mangal Singh later informed, was a labourer with an irregular income. "Every day around 4am, Risal would take his cycle and go to deliver the newspapers," said Mangal Singh.
The family learned about the incident from the person who had employed Singh. Relatives disclosed that the young man was found lying on the road divider, with one part of a bicycle along with the newspapers lying around 500 metres away from where the victim was. "We suspect that after hitting Risal, the vehicle dragged the cycle to that distance," said a family member.
Another relative described Singh as an exceptionally hardworking youngster, who earned around Rs 8,000 every month delivering newspapers, something he had been doing for the past couple of years.
In addition to his newspaper work, he also did other petty jobs to support his family of four, including his father, mother and younger brother. His two sisters are married.
Singh was pursuing a BA degree from the School of Open Learning at Delhi University. "What's truly remarkable about Risal was his unwavering commitment to education," the relative noted.
"Despite his demanding schedule, which included distributing papers and taking on other odd jobs, he never compromised on his studies. In fact, he continued to pursue his academic goals and was also a pillar of support for his younger brother, often helping him with his studies and encouraging him to excel."
A case has been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita's sections 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 106 (causing death by negligence). Police have formed teams to investigate the matter and are scanning CCTV footage for clues to the fatal accident.