Five persons including statehood activists and one police man died when the driver of the car they were in, lost control of the vehicle which fell down the mountainside in the Ganeshpuri area of Pauri district on Monday.
According to information received, for some days, people in Yamkeshwar block had been demonstrating on issues related to the development of the prilgrimage to Neelkanth Mahadev temple here. Known as a statehood activist, Indradatt Sharma who was heading this demonstration had a few days ago also threatened to resort to extreme step if their demand was not not met. It was on this matter that Sharma and four others were going in a car to Yamkeshwar to talk to the sub divisional magistrate. Unconfirmed reports state that Sharma was driving the car when he lost control of the vehicle near Ganeshpuri, which resulted in the car falling down the mountainside. The occupants of the car were reported to have died on the spot. They were identified as local journalist SS Payal, Neelkanth police post constable Narendra Chowdhary, Mahipal Singh and Mohan Singh Bisht.