The accident unfolded within minutes after a routine Fastag scan flagged insufficient balance, prompting the man to step out of his car to resolve the issue.
A 45-year-old man, on his way to drop a friend at the airport, was crushed to death and dragged for nearly 200 metres under a dumper truck at the Kherki Daula toll plaza on the Delhi–Jaipur Expressway early on Friday morning, police said.
The accident unfolded within minutes after a routine Fastag scan flagged insufficient balance, prompting the man to step out of his car to resolve the issue – only to be caught in the path of a speeding truck whose driver accelerated the moment the boom barrier lifted.
The victim, identified as Mubin Khan, lived in ward number seven of Tijara in Alwar district and had left home at dawn to drop his friend, Puneet Kumar, to the Indira Gandhi International Airport who was scheduled to fly to Bengaluru.
Investigators aware of the case details said Khan’s Hyundai Aura was flagged when the automatic deduction of ₹95 failed because of low Fastag balance. Toll booth staff told him to pull over and surrender his mobile phone as collateral while he paid the manual toll of ₹118 via UPI. He parked the car a short distance ahead, got out, and walked toward the operator’s cabin. He even recharged the Fastag with ₹100, but the update had not reflected by the time he reached the booth.
According to Sandeep Turan, spokesperson for the Gurugram police, the accident occurred moments after Khan completed his payment and began walking back.
“A truck entered the lane, and when the boom barrier lifted after the toll was deducted from its Fastag, the driver accelerated. He ran over Khan instantly. It appears he either didn’t realise he had mowed someone down, or he deliberately kept driving to escape,” Turan said.
Khan became trapped under the rear wheels and was dragged for several metres. His body was completely mutilated.
The truck fled, and only once toll workers noticed a trail of blood and body parts did they realise what had happened. CCTV footage from the plaza captured the truck’s Rajasthan registration number, and police said the driver would be arrested soon.
Even Kumar, who sat in the car just a few feet aware, remained unaware of the horrific accident. He repeatedly called Khan’s phone to ask what was causing the delay, but nobody answered. When he walked back to the booth, he learned that an accident had taken place. He rushed towards the small crowd gathering near the lane exit – and recognised his friend’s body. He immediately alerted the family in Tijara.
A senior official from the toll-operating firm confirmed that the truck, loaded with gravel, sped off moments after the accident. CCTV footage has been handed over to police.
‘Police warned us against looking at the body’
For the family, the tragic news arrived like a blow. Dilshad Khan, a relative, said Mubin and Puneet had left Tijara shortly before 4am. “Kumar’s flight was at 9am. They had been close friends for years. We received the information almost instantly, and several of us rushed to Gurugram,” he said.
He added that police did not allow the family to see the body. “They warned us not to open the bag after the post-mortem because it was too mutilated. We didn’t get to see him even one last time.”
“His wife Sarjeena is repeatedly fainting since she got to know about his death. A doctor visited her at home and gave her some medicines to sleep,” he said.
Khan had several acres of ancestral land and was involved in real estate deals across Tijara and parts of Alwar. But he was also the family’s central figure – the sole provider, the problem-solver, the one everyone relied on.
“His daughter Muskaan, 20, and sons Arman, 16, and Asif, 17, still cannot grasp that he is gone,” Dilshad said. “The entire family is shattered. And police have still not taken even arrested the truck driver.”
