A rerun of the Delhi car dragging incident was witnessed in Banda where a woman employee of the Agricultural University was dragged by a truck for over three kilometers before the vehicle caught fire and she was charred alive.
The accident took place on Wednesday evening and the agitated university students staged a demonstration that led to a huge traffic jam.
Reports said that Pushpa Singh (32) hailing from Gomti Nagar in Lucknow was a junior clerk at Banda University of Agriculture and Technology. She was earlier a teacher at Don Bosco School in Lucknow. On Wednesday evening, she left the university campus on a scooty. As soon as she came out of the university gate, a truck hit her from behind. Due to this Pushpa got trapped in the front part of the truck along with the scooty. She was dragged along with her scooty for three kilometres before both the vehicles caught fire.
The truck driver and the cleaner immediately jumped out of the vehicle and escaped while Pushpa Singh was charred alive before the police could rush to her rescue or call the fire brigade to douse the fire.
After two fire engines controlled the fire, the body trapped in the truck was searched. Instead of the body of the clerk, only a piece of flesh was found in the completely burnt truck.
The truck, UP-51 AT-5473, was going to Fatehpur after loading ballast from Kabrai. According to eyewitnesses, when the truck hit the scooty near the gate of the university, the passers-by screamed after seeing the accident. She also shouted loudly to stop the truck but the driver ignored the voice and increased the speed in an attempt to escape.
Sources said that Pushpa Devi had got a job in the university on compassionate ground after the death of her husband Ranjit Singh, who was an assistant accounts officer in the university. He was suffering from cancer and he lost his life due to infection in 2020 during the COVID-19 period.
There are two children in the family.
Meanwhile, due to the accident, a huge jam was witnessed on Mawai bypass for about two hours. The accident took place on the Banda-Kanpur road near a petrol pump in front of Circuit House.
Enraged by the accident, the students of the university blocked the Mawai bypass. The protest ended on assurance of stern action against the driver.
A police force was deployed along with PAC outside and inside the university campus to avert any untoward incident.
In another shocking incident, a speeding car hit a woman bicyclist and dragged her for more than 200 metres in Kaushambi district. The woman was admitted to the district hospital in Kaushambi, and the driver, who was also injured, was admitted to a hospital in Prayagraj.
Police said due to the crash, the woman got stuck in the wheel of the car along with the bicycle and was dragged for about 200 metres. The accident occurred when the woman was on her way to attend computer classes.