Three persons travelling in an ambulance were charred to death in Kesarpura area of Neemuch district on the Mhow-Nasirabad highway in the early hours of Sunday, when the vehicle collided head on with a truck laden with eight new Maruti cars. Since burnt poppy straw packed in 20 bags have been found in the vehicle, it is believed that the miscreants were drug peddlers and the ambulance was illegally being used for transporting contraband.
The investigation conducted so far suggested that the poppy straw was being transported to Rajasthan, but from where the consignment was being transported, is still a matter of investigation, as only one person in the vehicle survived, but he too is in serious condition and unable to speak. The three deceased, aged between 25 and 35 years, have been identified as Ishwar Yadav, Prashant Mishra and Dinesh Gwala, all residents of Mandsaur district. One of them Prashant Mishra is a close relative of a cop posted at Sitamau police station in Mandsaur. The severely burnt 32-year-old Gaurav Vyas, also a resident of Mandsaur was rushed to a hospital in adjoining Udaipur district of Rajasthan, where he is stated to be critical.
The accident occurred on Mhow-Neemuch highway at around 1 am, when the ambulance with bags of poppy fruit was speeding towards Rajasthan. In the investigation conducted so far, the reason behind the incident was the metallic board of unified inter-State check-post in Jawad area having collapsed. Due to this, the traffic had become one-way and with this, the vehicles from opposite direction were running close to each other.
Suddenly the speeding ambulance collided head on with the container loaded with Maruti cars. The collision was so powerful that both the vehicles turned into fireballs, burning alive all four persons seated in the ambulance. The driver of the container, however, managed to escape.
Coming to know about the accident, a Neemuch police team led by sub divisional officer police (SDOP-Jawad) Indrajeet Bakarwal rushed to the spot and fire tenders were pressed into action. But by then three of the four men in the ambulance had charred to death. The police officer told 'The Pioneer' that prima facie the case is related to drug peddling, as no patient was in the vehicle.