US: Driver leaves Indian-origin woman to die in blazing car

New York: A 25-year-old Indian-origin woman burned in the passenger seat of a destroyed Infiniti on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, early morning traffic inched through the single lane not engulfed in flames.

Harleen Grewal was burnt to death on Friday after Saeed Ahmad, 23, slammed his luxury Infiniti 35G into a concrete barrier on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the New York Daily reported.

The driver left the woman passenger to die in the fireball after hailing a cab to take himself to a hospital, it said.

When firefighters put out the flames, they found a badly burned woman in the passenger seat. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

While the car was still in flames, Ahmad took himself to Maimonides Medical Center, police said. He was being treated there for burns to his arms and legs, the report said.

Cops caught up with him at the hospital and charged him with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and speeding.

His arraignment was pending in Brooklyn Criminal Court, the report said.

Ahmad had been allegedly driving in and out of the traffic on the expressway before his car hit the barrier, it said.

Ahmad's brother Waheed, however, claimed that his sibling had tried to rescue the passenger.

"He said the girl that was in the car was stuck in there and he tried to get her out, that's why his arms were burned."

The grieving boyfriend of Grewal, who worked for a catering company, said she was a selfless soul who always looked out for others.

PTI