By IANS
New Delhi : A 25-year-old woman engineer who worked with private airlines Air Deccan was found dead under mysterious circumstances after being mowed down by a heavy vehicle near the taxiway at the domestic airport here, police said Tuesday.
Sanskriti Siena, a graduate in aeronautical engineering from Patna, was run over by a heavy vehicle while she was moving towards the hangar area to attend to some engineering requirements at an aircraft late Monday, a police official said. Her head was completely crushed.
“Her post-mortem report has revealed that she was crushed under a heavy vehicle as there were wheels marks on her head,” the official said.
“Through the help of forensic experts we are trying to identify the make of the vehicle. We are manually checking all vehicles operating inside the domestic airport,” the official said, adding that airport staff was also being questioned.
Airport officials told IANS that at around 10 p.m. Monday, a pilot of Spice Jet airlines, who was readying for take-off, informed the Air Traffic Control that there was something suspicious lying on the taxiway and should be dealt with immediately.
The airport manager found Sanskriti’s body at around 10.30 p.m. and informed the police, who are not ruling out foul play.
“We have registered a case of hit and run and destruction of evidence against unknown people. We are not ruling out the possibility of murder,” a police official said.
Airline officials however have washed their hands of the tragic incident.
Said Taufiq Mohammed, chief security officer of Air Deccan: “We don’t know about the cause of (Sanskriti’s) death but have set up a team to probe the matter. The police are also investigating the matter.
“We are providing all assistance to the police and can’t say anything more now.”
Terming the incident “unfortunate”, Arun Arora, spokesperson of Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), said that there were extensive training programmes for all vehicle drivers at the airport. He added that periodic refresher courses and random checks were also conducted to ensure compliance to norms.
Sanskriti’s relatives, who arrived in the capital after hearing about her death, refused to accept that she was run over by a vehicle.
“Do you think it is possible that someone could drive a vehicle so rashly and at such high speed in this very sensitive zone where the speed limit is restricted to just 20 kmph?” asked Arun Kumar, Sanskriti’s father.
“It can’t be just a mere accident as the authorities and the police are yet to trace the killer vehicle. Someone has deliberately killed my daughter,” a grief-stricken Kumar said.
Sanskriti was working in the aviation industry for the past six years. She came to Delhi to pursue higher studies and was working with Air Deccan for the past one year in the technical department.
She was to get married in February next year and stayed in Mahipalpur with two women – Shilpi and Shipra.
“We spoke to her at about 9.00 p.m. She had no enemies and the incident is really shocking for us,” said Shilpi, who works with Air Sahara.