Class 2 girl falls over oil cauldron on street, sustains burns; vendor held

A six-year-old girl sustained serious injuries to her abdomen and limbs after falling over a boiling cauldron of oil in north Delhi’s Ashok Vihar on Saturday evening.

The oil was being heated by a street vendor to prepare jalebis.

Police said vendor Shrichand had illegally placed his little cart on the street which sees heavy movement of pedestrians. He was arrested at the accident spot.

Police said he has been booked for endangering the personal safety of others.

The victim, a class 2 student at the local government school, lives with her parents in a slum in Wazirpur of Ashok Vihar. Her father Satish Kumar Sharma is a security guard at a factory.
“Sharma was standing on the street outside his home and his daughter Lakshmi was playing nearby at 6 pm on Saturday,” a police officer told Deccan Herald.

“The vendor had left the oil for boiling and was occupied with other preparations required for making jalebis. Suddenly, the girl stumbled and fell over the oil cauldron which overturned as a result. A lot of the hot oil spilled over the girl,” he added.

Sharma heard his daughter scream out in pain.

Along with the help of locals, he rushed Lakshmi to a local hospital from where she was referred to Lok Nayak Hospital because of the extent of burn injuries.

Police said she is set to be discharged from the hospital in a couple of days, but would take over a month to heal.

Police, meanwhile, were informed of the incident and the vendor handed over to them. Shrichand lives in the same slum and was known to her father.

In a similar incident in July last year, a three-year-old boy was killed when he fell off his mother’s arms into a cauldron of oil for jalebis in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri.

A rashly driven e-rickshaw had allegedly hit the mother from behind, forcing the boy to slip off her arms.