Boy, 2, boils to death in vat of sugar syrup after rickshaw knocks him from mother's arms
A two-year-old boy boiled to death after an electric rickshaw knocked him from his mother's arms into a vat of sugar syrup.
The child, named Dev, fell into the liquid at a market in east Delhi on Tuesday afternoon as him mum was looking for milk for him.
She said she did not normally walk in the market but was trying to avoid hawkers on the main street.
According to the Mirror, his mother Pinki said: "My son would have been alive had I not succumbed to his continuous insistence for milk. I wanted to take him to his father who worked in a shop on the same lane.
"Since the narrow road in our local market is always overcrowded and jam-packed with vehicles, I always avoided going there. But on Tuesday, I broke my own rule and paid for it by losing my son."
According to the Hindustan Times, police officials investigating the case said the sweet shop owner had encroached upon footpath space by cooking vat on the stove there.
Pinki claimed the shop's employees turned a blind eye to the incident. The rickshaw driver fled the scene.
Dev's family members and neighbours reportedly staged a protest outside the Mayur Vihar police station on Wednesday demanding justice.
According to the Daily Mail, Pinki said: "I was carrying Dev in my arms, when suddenly we were hit by the speeding e-rickshaw while we were standing outside a sweet shop, Pinky said.
"I lost my balance and my son fell inside the pot filled with hot syrup prepared for jalebis.
"I started screaming for help, but no one came forward."
She suffered severe burns to arms trying to save her son. Both were taken to the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, where Dev later died.
Unregulated electric rickshaws are a growing problem in Delhi.
A hearing at Delhi High Court on 14 August will discuss new rules for the vehicles, and even a potential ban of them completely.
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