New Delhi: For 26-year-old bike-taxi driver Zubair Ali, long hours on Delhi’s roads meant security for his family. With a five-month pregnant wife, a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter and an ailing mother, he took up extra rides and even ration-loading work to make ends meet.On Sunday, that routine ended in tragedy when he was crushed under a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) tanker in a hit-and-run incident. The family is now struggling to cope with the loss of its sole breadwinner, Zubair’s elder brother Dilshad told TOI.
A resident of Basoud village in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, Zubair had been driving for bike-taxi aggregators like Rapido and Uber for the past one year. After his father’s death in 2021, the responsibility of caring for the household fell entirely on him. His 70-year-old mother, Anwari, recently underwent eye surgery, adding to the family’s financial strain.“He never complained. He would take as many rides as possible, day and night. If there was extra work available, he did that too,” Dilshad said.On the day of the incident, the family was unaware anything was wrong. The news came through one of Zubair’s friends, who had spoken to him barely 15-20 minutes earlier about a billing-related issue. “They had talked normally. The next call my brother’s friend got was from the police, asking for his name and telling him to inform the family that he had died,” Dilshad recalled.According to police, even though Zubair was wearing a helmet when the DJB tanker ran over him, his head was crushed under the vehicle’s tyre. The driver allegedly fled the spot, abandoning the tanker. Zubair was taken to GTB Hospital, where he was declared dead.Back in the family’s rented accommodation in Ghaziabad’s Loni, his wife Sania, 23, has been unable to move from her bed since the incident. “She is five months pregnant and in deep shock. She doesn’t speak, she doesn’t eat. We don’t know how to handle this,” Dilshad said. Their daughter, Inaya, just 18 months old, is too young to understand what has happened.Zubair studied till Class 10 and came to Delhi hoping to earn enough to educate his children in a private school and provide medical care for his mother back in the village. His bike, received as a gift at his wedding three years ago, had become his lifeline. “He was the only earning member. We don’t know what to do next,” the brother said.Cops said the driver of the tanker, identified as Khantab Ali (32), has been arrested. “During interrogation, he revealed that he got a call from a friend and had to get somewhere, due to which he sped up and hit the bike rider,” a senior police officer said.
