Red Fort blast: Cabbie killed on spot as fireball from high-intensity explosion hits his car; cab trailed exploding car

NEW DELHI: The last time Pankaj Sahni’s friends and family saw him was around 4.30pm Monday, when he left his home in Kanjhawala to drop a neighbour to Old Delhi Railway Station. Two hours later, news of the blast broke.

“I kept calling him repeatedly, but his phone was switched off,” said his father Ram Balak Sahni.It was then that an image of a completely burnt and mangled white cab bearing the numberplate 6662 flashed on their TV screens, and their worst nightmare had come true. “The cab belonged to Pankaj, and we immediately informed his family,” Pankaj’s friend Bittu recalled.

Pankaj was on his way to pick up a passenger when the incident.

As he reached the signal near Red Fort metro station, his vehicle was hit by a fireball from the high-intensity blast, killing him instantly. A relative said they came to know his cab was just behind the vehicle that exploded.Ram Balak said after seeing the vehicle on the news, he immediately went to Kotwali police station and then to the hospital, but could not locate his son. Around 2am, he received a call from police asking him to come to the mortuary.

A native of Bihar, Pankaj had completed his class XII education and was his family’s main breadwinner. “He used to work with a private company, but after losing that job, he started driving a cab. He worked tirelessly, supporting my treatment as I’m a heart patient and helping his younger siblings with their education,” said a grief-stricken Balak Ram, as he waited with some relatives at the mortuary to collect the body.The cab had been bought on loan, which Pankaj was repaying, he added.