LUCKNOW: In a major road tragedy, the vice-chancellor of a government university in Maharashtra’s Nagpur and his wife were killed, and another person was injured, after their car collided with a trailer parked near Basharathpur in Mau district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, police said.
According to Raj Kumar Singh, inspector-in-charge of Doharighat police station in Mau, the deceased included Hareram Tripathi, 58, vice-chancellor of Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University in Ramtek, and his wife Badami Devi, 56. Both were residents of Mirganj in Gopalganj district of Bihar and were returning home from Nagpur when they met with the fatal accident.
However, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anoop Kumar confirmed that the mishap allegedly happened in Kusma village on the Gorakhpur–Varanasi highway in the Doharighat police station area of Mau district, when their car collided with a parked trailer truck.
Vaibhav Mishra, 35, the driver of the ill-fated car, who was injured in the accident, told the police that Professor Tripathi started driving the car after the driver felt sleepy. “As the car reached near Basharathpur in the Doharighat area of Mau, the tyre got punctured and the car rammed into the trailer,” he said.
Police said that both bodies were sent for post-mortem and the driver was admitted to hospital for medical intervention.
Sampurnanand Sanskrit University vice-chancellor Bihari Lal Sharma expressed condolences on the sudden demise of the former vice-chancellor. “I am deeply saddened to hear the news of the sudden demise of Prof. Hareram Tripathi Ji, former vice-chancellor of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University and current vice-chancellor of Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, Ramtek, and his wife Badami Devi in a road accident. I pray to Baba Vishwanath Ji for the peace of their souls. Om Shanti: Shanti: Shanti:”