Pauri roads turn accident-prone
DEHRADUN: Pauri Garhwal, where at-least 48 persons died in an accident on Sunday, was among the top three districts with the most number of accidents among all hill districts, a recent survey by the Uttarakhand police had revealed.
The survey found that the maximum number of accidents in the hill districts this year have happened because of overspeeding and negligence by drivers.
In Sunday’s accident also, the police believe the cause could be over-speeding resulting in the driver, who died in the accident, losing control at a blind curve. However, the police said the exact reason would be known only after detailed investigation. Both driver and the conductor of the 28 seater bus died in the accident.
Kewal Khurana, deputy inspector general, traffic, said: “We found that in majority of the cases in the hill districts, over-speeding was the cause of accidents.”
The survey covered eight hill districts including Pauri Garhwal, Almora, Uttarkashi, Tehri Garhwal and Chamoli. As third highest number of accidents. This figure will change dramatically with 48 persons losing their lives in one of the worst accidents in Uttarakhand in recent years.
In the survey period from January to end of May, 15 accidents were reported from Pauri resulting in seven deaths and 24 injured. However, Sunday’s accident was the first in Pauri district involving a bus, the survey revealed.
Khurana said they found that in the hill districts mostly the vehicles driven by local drivers were involved in accidents even though the region received a heavy traffic during Chardham Yatra that starts in June. “One of the causes for the accidents in the hill districts was drivers not having enough sleep. It was also found that they often indulged in over-speeding on roads there which are not in a good condition,” said Khurana. NEW DELHI: Eleven members of a family, including children, were found dead under mysterious circumstances inside their house in North Delhi’s Burari on Sunday morning in what police suspect to be either a suicide pact or a religious ritual gone horribly wrong.
A police statement said some handwritten notes were found in the house “which point towards observance of some definite spiritual/mystical practices by the whole family”.
Nine of the 10 bodies that were found hanging had their limbs tied, their eyes blindfolded, ears plugged with cotton balls, and mouths covered with tape, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
They are suspected to have died from hanging. The eleventh body, of an elderly woman, was found in an adjacent room with ligature marks around her neck.
The marks have prompted the police to register a murder case at Burari police station and transfer the probe to the crime branch.
According to a second police officer who asked not to be identified, investigators found several hand-written notes in the prayer room, detailed steps to be taken to obtain salvation and meet God.
The officer, who is directly involved in the investigations said the notes said that the ritual hangings prescribed would not result in death, with God coming to the rescue of the individuals in their last moments.
A police team found signs of a ‘havan’ (a ritual burning of offerings such as ghee and grains) in another room and suspect one was performed before the family members took their life.
Police are probing if the ritual was advised or suggested by the family’s priest or someone else, perhaps a cult leader that the family may have been following. Vinit Kumar, additional deputy commissioner of police (north) said: “The notes have strong similarities with the manner in which the people were found dead.”