Truck driver shot by businessman after fight over honking dies in Noida

Noida: A week after being shot in the head by a businessman, a 28-year-old truck driver succumbed to his injuries at a city hospital on Sunday morning. Lalu Prasad from Buduan had been shot at by Vikash Kumar (47) — who runs a milk business in Jaipur and resides in Sector 71 — during a road rage incident in Sector 63 on Friday (April 18). Vikash, who hails from Bulandshahr, shot Lalu above the right eyebrow. Vikash claimed he fired in the air, but the bullet struck Lalu. "Lalu was the sole breadwinner in the family. His mother, wife and four-year-old son were dependent on him," his friend Surjeet, who was driving another truck behind him, said.
Surjeet said Lalu was in the ICU for the past nine days. "Doctors informed us on April 18 that the chances of his recovery were low. We were hoping for his recovery, but early Sunday morning, he succumbed to his injuries. He was motionless since he was admitted," Sarjeet said.

SHO Avdesh Partap Singh said on Sunday, "An FIR had been registered against Vikash and his employee Lalit Kumar (28) under sections 109 (attempt to murder), 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of trust) of the BNS. Now, we are adding the murder charges."
The SHO said, "On the morning of April 19, we arrested prime accused Vikash and his employee Lalit from Ambedkar Nagar." Police recovered the SUV from the accused's possession.
On April 18, Lalu was driving a truck loaded with snacks from a factory in Sector 63 to Orai when he encountered a Fortuner parked right in the middle of the road near Ginger Hotel. What began as a simple request for passage turned into a heated exchange as the SUV owner, Vikash, refused to move his vehicle.
Lalu, according to his friend Surjeet, waited for five minutes for Vikash to remove the SUV, but to no avail. When Lalu honked a couple of times and asked Vikash to make way for him, the businessman allegedly hurled a volley of abuses.
"There were two people inside the Fortuner. Lalu waited patiently for some time but started blaring the horn as he was getting late. After an exchange of words, they (the accused) eventually turned the car, moved a little ahead and pulled over after a few metres," Surjeet said.
As Lalu started to drive away, Vikash allegedly asked him to stop. Still seated inside the car, he whipped out a pistol and fired at Lalu, hitting him above the right eyebrow. Police investigations revealed that Vikash and his worker Lalit were travelling to Haridwar on Thursday night. They altered their plans when Vikas's wife requested him to postpone the journey to Friday morning (April 18). After consuming alcohol in Ghaziabad, they drove towards Noida. The incident occurred when they parked near the restaurant and Prasad honked multiple times requesting passage.