COLOMBO: Renowned Hindi author Ganga Prasad Vimal and his two family members were killed in a road accident in southern Sri Lanka, police said on Wednesday.
The 80-year-old author was travelling along with his family in a van, which crashed into a container truck from behind on the Southern Expressway in Kurundugahahathapma area on Monday night, they said.
Vimal and two of his family members were killed on the spot while a local driver died on the way to hospital.
Two more persons sustained injuries. The van was heading towards Colombo from the southern port town of Galle when the accident took place, police said.
Born in 1939 in Uttarkashi, a Himalayan town in Uttarakhand, Vimal held key responsibilities in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra.
He wrote more than one dozen poetry collections, short story collections and novels.
His last novel, Manushkhor, was published in 2013. He received several Hindi literary awards.