In Muzaffarnagar, a 15-year-old Pooja, studying in class 8th at Prannath Inter College at Ratanpuri, was crushed to death after coming under the wheels of a tanker when she was going to her school on Saturday morning. local police later swung into action and nabbed the tanker driver and cleaner identified as Gokil and Jagdish, both native of Dibai in Bulundshahr.
They were taken to Ratanpuri police station and lodged in the lock-up. However, the matter took an ugly turn when over 1000 of local residents from native place of victim in Madawali Khadar and also from Ratanpuri collected outside the police station. They damaged the tanker and later struck at the police station, ransacked the office and also broke open the lock up and forcibly took both the accused on the road. The cops tried to rescue them but they were assaulted by the agitated crowd.
later senior officers reached the spot along with heavy police force and had a tough time to rescue both the accused. They were rushed to District Hospital in critical condition. The protesters later put the body of the girl on the road and demanded suspension of local station house officer and compensation for the girls. The protest ended after senior officers assured that they were pursue the matter to compensation with the government and if any negligence was found on part of police than they would be also punished.
In another mishap, five pilgrims, including three of a family, were killed and three others injured when a jeep rammed into a stationarytruck in Gambhirpur area of Azamgarh. Sant Prasad, his wife Manju, sister Deepika, friend Bhanu Pratap and driver Gyanu were killed when the jeep in which they were traveling rammed into the truck near Muhammadpur Bazar on late Friday night. The injured were admitted to the district hospital from where one was referred to Varanasi in a serious condition. The victims were returning from Vindhyachal in Mirzapur.
A 10-year-old boy was killed after being hit by a vehicle in Gosain Bazar under Gambhirpur police station area also in Azamgarh. The victim, identified as Chotu Yadav, was playing in front of his house when the SUV driver lost control of the vehicle, which then hit the boy and later overturned. A case was registered in this regard and the driver was. The body has been sent for postmortem. In yet another incident reported from Azamgarh, two children drowned in a pond while taking bath in Kolhuan village on Saturday morning. Rajan (10) and Nitesh (6) had gone to graze their goat when they decided to take a bath, following which they drowned. The bodies have been fished out of the pond and sent for autopsy.
In a separate incident, a five year-old girl was killed when an old iron gate fell on her in Masudamau village under Masauli police station area of Barabanki. Soni Chauhan was playing in panchayat bhawan compound when the old iron gate, which was in a dilapidated state, fell on her, killing the girl on the spot, on Friday evening. The body has been sent for postmortem examination. In yet another case, a 25-year-old youth was killed when the bicycle he was riding on was hit by a speeding truck in line Bazar police station area in Jaunpur on Saturday morning. The deceased identified as Pramod Kumar Singh, was on his way to the district headquarter on his bicycle when
he was hit from the rear side by a speeding truck and crushed under its wheels. The body has been sent for post mortem examination and the truck driver was arrested.