2 cops among 3 drown as truck falls into river

LUCKNOW : In a tragic incident, three people, including two police constables, drowned when the truck in which they were travelling fell into Garra river under Pali police limits of Lucknow’s adjoining Hardoi district early on Thursday, said senior police officials.

The officials said the truck was driven by the member of a gang of heavy vehicles’ thieves and the two constables who were bringing the truck back to Hardoi after recovering it from Farrukhabad.

Hardoi superintendent of police (SP) Anurag Vats said the body of the driver and a constable identified as Bhupendra Kumar were fished out while another constable Shravan Jaiswal was still missing.

He said Jaiswal was also feared to have drowned as the truck fell into the river from the height of 10 feet after breaking the railing of the bridge while crossing it. He said initial investigation suggested that the driver lost concentration due to tiredness.

He said the driver was member of the gang that had stolen the truck.

Another local police official, who visited the spot, said the incident occurred when the two constables of Hardoi police special operations group (SOG) were bringing the stolen truck to Hardoi. He said an SOG vehicle was accompanying them while the two constables were travelling in the truck along with the driver.

He said one of the gang members was asked to drive the truck as no other person was able to drive the truck. The cop said it would be further probed as to why the SOG in-charge allowed one of the accused to drive the truck.

“However, our priority at the moment is to search the missing constable for which a team of PAC divers has been called,” he said.