BHOPAL: Seven members of an extended family from Odisha and the driver of their rented car died after the vehicle was swept away by a flooded drain near the famous Goddess Baglamukhi Temple in Nalkheda town of Madhya Pradesh’s Agar-Malwa district in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.
The deceased included three children aged between six and 13 years. All eight people remained trapped inside the car after it was swept into the flooded drain.
The incident occurred around 12.30 am, the drain was flooded following heavy rain near the temple, located around 180 km from state capital Bhopal.
“The family from Odisha, after offering prayers at Goddess Baglamukhi Temple, was returning to Ujjain, from where they had hired the vehicle to Nalkheda. Due to around 1.5 hours heavy rains, the drain near the temple was flooded. The driver of the rented car unable to sense the danger, possibly swerved the vehicle, plunging it into the flooded drain, after which the vehicle was lost in the drain,” Agar-Malwa district Superintendent of Police Dilip Soni told TNIE.
The incident came to light around 9.30 am when local residents spotted the Maruti S-Presso in the drain after the water level had receded. They informed the police, who reached the spot and retrieved the vehicle with all eight bodies inside. The car was locked from the inside.
The deceased were identified as Radha Rani Behera (35), a resident of Jaydev Vihar Regional Research Laboratory in Khordha, Bhubaneswar; Gyanendra Kumar Behera (41), his wife Rita Rani (38), and their relative V-Sai Swastik (10), all residents of Ichhapur in Cuttack; Shibaprasad Behera (42), a resident of Bhubaneswar, and his children Krishna Rajveer (13) and Shahira Swayamprabha (6). The driver, Arun Goyal (30), was a resident of Agar-Malwa.
Krishna Rajveer and Shahira Swayamprabha were children of Shibaprasad Behera, while V-Sai Swastik was the child of Gyanendra Behera.
“A preliminary police report about the unnatural deaths has been registered by the local police and a detailed investigation into the causes of the incident is being conducted,” Soni said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister condoled the deaths and announced ex-gratia payments of Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively for the next of kin of those killed.
President Droupadi Murmu also said that the loss of lives in the car accident is extremely saddening.