Seven Hyderabad devotees returning from Maha Kumbh killed in Madhya Pradesh, two injured

According to information available, the pilgrims from Medchal Malkajgiri were part of a group that had gone for Maha Kumbh. Their vehicle collided with a truck near Mohla-Bargi, around 9:15 am

HYDERABAD: Seven pilgrims from Hyderabad were killed, and two others sustained injuries when the minibus in which they were travelling in was allegedly rammed by a truck in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district on Tuesday.

According to the Jabalpur police, the victims were returning from Maha Kumbh in Uttar Pradesh to Hyderabad in the minibus when the accident took place.

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The deceased were identified as Anand Kumar (48), Shashi Kumar (50), Ravi Kumar (55), TV Prasad (57), Mallareddy (62), P Santosh (47) and E Raju (55). The injured, S Naveenacharya and Balakrishna Shriram were shifted to a local government hospital for treatment.

All the victims are residents of Nacharam, Saroornagar and Tarnaka in the city. The group hired a minibus and left the city on Saturday to visit the Maha Kumbh Mela. After taking a holy dip on Monday and resting in the night, they started for Hyderabad on Tuesday morning when around 9.30 am, the accident took place.

The family members got information about the incident around 10 am, and soon the relatives, friends and well-wishers started gathering at the houses of the victims. The local police visited the houses, and crosschecked the details and took relevant documents of the victims from their families. The police coordinated with their counterparts in Jabalpur.

Local revenue officials also visited the houses and collected details, and took up the issue with higher-ups. The bodies are expected to arrive in the city on Wednesday after the post-mortem examination at the local hospital in Jabalpur.

One of the victims, Santosh, did gold ornaments business. A few months ago, his wife passed away, and his two daughters were staying in a hostel in the city and studying. A pall of gloom descended at the house after the news reached the family of Santosh. Santosh’s elderly mother wept inconsolably on coming to know about the death of her son.

Naveen, Anand, Santosh and Shashi are close relatives and all of them stay at Nacharam. The families, on coming to know about the incident, gathered at the house of one of the victims and spoke to officials, requesting them to shift the bodies to the city at the earliest for final rites.