A two-year-old boy walking home with his mother in New Town was fatally hit by an e-rickshaw, whose ignition was turned on by the driver’s five-year-old daughter who was alone in the vehicle.

“Ayush Roy Chowdhury and his mother were walking home to Rupashree Housing Complex, in Action Area I, on Wednesday morning when the e-rickshaw suddenly lurched forward and hit him,” an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.

The vehicle was parked by the roadside. Its owner, 41-year-old Ajoy Roy, had gone to a shop nearby, asking his daughter to sit on the front seat, the officer said. The keys were hanging from the ignition switch.

“The child turned on the ignition and twisted the throttle of the e-rickshaw. The vehicle surged forward and hit the toddler,” the officer said.

Witnesses told the police that Ayush was flung at least 10 feet away after the e-rickshaw hit him.

He was taken to Bhagirathi Neotia Woman and Child Care Centre, New Town, where he was declared dead.

“We gave him some cardiopulmonary resuscitation but failed to revive him. The police took the body for post-mortem,” an official of the hospital said.

The e-rickshaw owner has been arrested under several IPC sections, including 304A (causing death by negligence).