DEHRADUN: Five pilgrims from West Bengal and an Uttarkashi-based taxi driver died after the vehicle they were travelling in fell into a 50-metre-deep gorge near Kotigad village in Kandisaur tehsil of Tehri Garhwal district on Wednesday.
The pilgrims were on their way to the Gangotri shrine when the driver lost control of the vehicle. According to district authorities, the vehicle first hit the parapet wall and then plunged into the gorge. Subsequently, it caught fire and all the six people on board are believed to have died on the spot.
On receiving information about the accident, a sub-team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) reached the accident spot and launched a rescue operation that lasted a couple of hours. “The bodies were recovered in a partially burnt condition as the vehicle was charred,” sub-inspector Sachin Rawat, who headed the SDRF rescue team, told TOI.
In a tweet, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief over the loss of lives in the accident.
According to police, the victims have been identified as Pradeep Das (24), a resident of 24 Pargana district in West Bengal; Nilesh Bhuniya, (23), a resident of Panchasayar in east Kolkata; Madan Mohan Bhuniya (61), a resident of Panchasayar in east Kolkata; Jhumur Bhuniya (59), a resident of Panchasayar in east Kolkata; Devmalya Dev (43), a resident of Barrackpore in West Bengal; and driver Ashish Kumar (36), a resident of Uttarkashi.
To recall, in October last year, five tourists from West Bengal had also died in a road accident in Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand.
