KOTA: Nine men returning from a wedding died in a road incident in Rajasthan's Jhalawar when the car they were in collided head-on with a truck early Sunday, an officer said.
The men, all of them aged 16-30, were returning from a wedding in Dungri village of Madhya Pradesh.
Among the victims were Rohit, 16, Sonu, 22, and Deepak, 24, all of them brothers, Eklera Police Station SHO Sandeep Vishoni said.
The other victims were identified as Ashok, 24, Hemraj, 33, Ravishankar, 25, and Rahul, 20, all of them from Bagari Mohalla of Jhalawar's Eklera village, he said.
Rohit, 22, and Ramkishan, 20, who too died in the incident, were from Khanpur area of Jhalawar and Harnawda in Baran district.
Manish Bagari, 18, is undergoing treatment in a critical state at a hospital, Vishoni said.
The truck driver was detained and questioned, he said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Hemant Gautam said the car, a Maruti Suzuki Omni, was completely mangled.
According to Gopal Bagari, a relative, around 35-40 baraatis had left from Dungri in three Omnis and two pick-ups vehicles at around 12.30 am.
On the way, Bagari stopped in Khimchi village on Bhopal road for tea, while the other car sped ahead.
After around 10 minutes break, Bagari resumed his journey, and after a few minutes travel, around 2.15 am, found a car in a mangled state stuck in a truck near Pachola village.
The rescuers had to break open the rear gate of the car to bring out the severely injured men, at least two of them were stuck in front.
Five of them were rushed to a private hospital and four to a community health centre.
All nine were soon declared dead.