In a tragic incident, at least 14 people including 7 children of a marriage party were killed in a road accident in Pratapgarh on late Thursday night.
Police said here on Friday that the deceased were travelling in an SUV, which collided with a stationary truck under Kunda police station area after midnight. They were returning back from the marriage function in Nawabganj area in Kanpur when the accident occurred near Deshraj village. All the occupants of the SUV were killed. Sources said the driver of the SUV probably fell asleep which led to the accident.
The police that reached the spot had to use gas cutters to retrieve the bodies from the vehicle that had turned into a mangled heap of iron. It took more than three hours to get the bodies out, reports confirmed. Superintendent of Police Anurag Arya who reached the accident site said that all 14 bodies had been sent for post-mortem. He said the speeding SUV dashed into the truck parked by the road in the Manikpur police station area after one of its rear tyres got punctured near Deshraj Inara. While five bodies could be taken out initially, a JCB machine had to be used to pull out the SUV from under the truck to retrieve the remaining bodies, he said, adding the bodies have been shifted to CHC Kunda and will be sent for autopsy later in the day. It took almost two hours to pull the car out from under the truck, the SP said. Arya, who visited the spot, said the police have spoken to the family members of the victims and assured all possible help.
The deceased were identified as Bablu (22), Naan Bhaiya (45), Dinesh Yadav (40) and his sons Pawan (10) and Aman (7), Ram Samujh (40), Daya Ram (40), Abhimanyu (28), Mithilesh (17), Gaurav (10), Ansh (9), Sachin and Himanshu (both aged 12), and driver Paras Nath Yadav (40). All of them were residents of Jirgapur village in the Kunda police station limits and had gone to Shekhapur village to attend a wedding, the police said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the deaths. A compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the family members of each killed was announced as relief. Expressing grief over the incident, Adityanath directed senior officials to reach the spot and provide assistance to the victims, his office said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday expressed deep anguish over the death of 14 people in a road accident in Uttar Pradesh. “Deeply anguished by the heart-wrenching incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh. Fourteen people, including children, were killed in the road accident while returning from a marriage function,” Priyanka Gandhi said in a Facebook post in Hindi.”I am saddened thinking about the plight of the families of the deceased. I pray for all of them. May God give them the strength to bear the loss,” she said.