For the last few days, 23-year-old Sahil Dhaneshra and his mother Inna Makan from Dwarka were counting down days, as they waited for response from all the foreign universities he had applied for admission to MBA courses. Raised by a single mother, Sahil knew that he had to make it big in life and support his family. He believed an MBA from a foreign university was his sureshot ticket to success.
On February 14, Inna found a letter waiting – an acceptance letter from the University of Manchester. But by then, her whole world had fallen apart.
Sahil had died after being mowed down by a speeding Scorpio vehicle while on his way to Inna’s office on a motorcycle on February 3. Police later confirmed that the car was being driven by a 17-year-old boy who didn’t have a driving licence.
“I received a call around 1.20 pm that my son met with an accident… I went to the spot and saw my son lying on the road, bleeding… he was in so much agony,” Inna told The Indian Express on Tuesday.
Sahil was rushed to Indira Gandhi Hospital, where he was declared dead at 1.57 pm.
“My life ended there,” she said plainly. “My son was just days away from realising his dreams.”
After the postmortem examination was conducted, Sahil’s remains were taken to Haridwar and the family returned to Delhi on February 14 to hold a wake.
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Police said it appears the Scorpio collided with the motorcycle coming from the opposite direction and thereafter hit a Swift Dzire taxi parked on the road.
The Scorpio driver, the 17-year-old boy, was apprehended. Being a minor, he was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and sent to an observation home. He was later granted interim bail on February 10 to sit for his Class X board exams, police said.
“The police kept telling me that he is a juvenile, it’s the law that he’ll get bail. Then they told me that even if his father is arrested, it will be easy to get bail because it was just an accident,” said Inna.
She couldn’t accept this, she added. That is when she decided to turn to social media for help.
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“I first started a page on Instagram but soon it was banned because someone reported it for money laundering. So, I turned to Twitter (X) because I knew people would respond more over there,” she said.
Inna made a tearful appeal on social media seeking action against the driver involved. “I lost my son, Sahil Dhaneshra, a 22-year-old talented boy whom I raised for 23 years alone as a single mom. He was killed brutally by a Scorpio… the driver was an unlicensed driver and his sister was making reels in the car while he sped around,” she alleged in a video on X on Sunday.
Sahil’s friends, meanwhile, are numbed by the sudden loss.
“He was the most mature among all of us,” said Manas Sachdeva (20), one of Sahil’s close friends. Describing him as incredibly hard working and intelligent, Manas said that Sahil was holding down two part-time jobs while working with his mother’s real estate company and pursuing his final semester of BBA.
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“He just wanted to uplift his mother’s life… he had to leave college for some time because there were financial troubles at home but he went back the moment he could pay the fees again,” said Manas.
Sahil’s room is peppered with evidence of his determination. On the ceiling, right above where he slept, he had written ‘2025 will be my $10,00,000 year’ with a black marker. On the wall opposite his bed, ‘DREAM’ written vertically, with the ‘D’ spelling out ‘Discipline’.
Sahil’s grandmother Rajkumari, bedridden, is worried about her daughter. “Inna lost her husband when Sahil was just a toddler. And now her only child is gone. I’m worried for her but I feel so helpless.”
However, as Inna grieved, her anger simmered. “This is just the beginning. I won’t rest till my son gets justice,” she said.
