GHAZIABAD: A 30-year-old man walking home died after a firecracker hurled at him by his friend burst near his leg in Jhandapur colony on Sunday night. Originally from Deoghar in Jharkhand, Afzal Ansari suffered a gushing wound in the right leg and was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital. Doctors said he had lost a lot of blood. A CCTV clip uploaded on social media shows Afzal running into a group of friends bursting crackers in a narrow lane on Diwali.After a brief chat with them, Afzal turns around and heads home. He takes a few steps when a friend sets fire to a cracker and hurls at him from behind. The cracker explodes and Afzal slumps to the ground amid a thick cloud of smoke.Police said the friend - identified as Pradeep - possibly tried to play a prank on Afzal and scare him by bursting the cracker when he turned around. Pradeep, who can be seen smiling after having thrown the cracker, is untraceable and two police teams have been formed to trace him.Afzal, friend Chandan Kumar said, lived alone at his rented house in Jhandapur and worked as a daily wager with a private firm. He was separated from his wife for several years."He had dinner at a local eatery and was returning home when some friends stopped him around 9.30am. They greeted each other on Diwali and Afzal headed home. Just as he had turned around, Pradeep hurled a cracker at him. As it exploded, Afzal fell on the road," he added.Afzal was taken to MMG Hospital. But by the time he was wheeled into the emergency ward, he had succumbed to injuries.Bhaskar Verma, ACP (Sahibabad), said the cracker that was burst might have had a metal casing for amplifying its sound. "The victim suffered grievous injuries in the veins, which caused him to bleed excessively. The body was sent for an autopsy and the reports are awaited," he added.The owner of the house where Afzal lived lodged a complaint against Pradeep at Link Road police station. An FIR was registered against him under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC. "He is absconding at the moment. We have formed two teams to look for him. He will be arrested soon," the ACP said.

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