DEHRADUN: A car ferrying a group of people from Punjab and Delhi-NCR was swept away in the gushing waters of the Dhela river early on Friday in Ramnagar, Nainital district. Nine persons were declared dead later. Only a 22-year-old woman, a local resident, survived miraculously and was rescued.
Police managed to retrieve the bodies of six women and three men, aged between 22 and 35 years, by cutting the vehicle open.
Five of the victims were from Punjab, and have been identified as Pawan Jacob, a resident of Bhimnagar Safabadi Gate, Jhungian, Patiala.
Dhela river was in spate & had washed away road: DIG
Kavita, from Guru Angad Dev Colony, Rajpura, Patiala; Amandeep Singh from Sangrur; Janhvi from Inderpura, Patiala, and Iqbal, also from Patiala.
Those dead from Delhi were Sangeeta Tamang, from Kallu Mohalla, Garhi, East of Kailash; Heena, from Subhash Vihar, near Bhajanpura in North East Delhi, and Pinky Kumari alias Sakina from Sector 93B, Noida.
The ninth victim was Ashiya from Ramnagar, Uttarakhand. Nazia Umar, the woman who was saved, is a resident of Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar district.
Due to heavy rain across Uttarakhand over the last couple of days, the water level of most rivers had risen dangerously and developed strong currents. At the time of the accident, the Dhela river was in spate and had washed away the road.
DIG (Kumaon) Nilesh Anand Bharne told TOI, "The accident occurred around 5 am, when the group was coming to a resort in Ramnagar. There were signboards requesting visitors to not take the road, the driver must also have warned against it, but the travellers went anyway. Local residents noticed the car in the river and raised an alarm. When police started rescue work, nine people had already died. The lone survivor has been sent to a hospital and is still unconscious."
Dharam Pal, a local driver who was on his way from Kashipur to Dhela on Friday morning, said he had seen the vehicle speeding towards the dangerous stretch and tried to stop it. "I was on my way to Dhela but seeing the strong currents, I stopped my car and parked it on the side of a road. When I saw the other car approaching towards the stretch, I shouted, waved my hands and used the dipper of my car but the ill-fated vehicle didn't stop. I saw it get washed away in less than a second," he told TOI.
"The victims were a group of friends who came to Uttarakhand for an outing. The post-mortem is being done in Ramnagar hospital," said SHO, Ramnagar, Arun Saini. Meanwhile, a police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said that the group was a dance troupe, which was returning after a performance at a high-end resort.
(With inputs from Kalyan Das)
