9 killed in van-truck head-on collision in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar: Police

Jaipur: At least nine people were killed following a head-on collision between a van and a truck late on Sunday night in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar, police said.

The accident took place on the Bhopal-Jhalawar highway near the Aklera area around 3am on Sunday, said police.

Sandeep Vishnoi, Aklera police Station House Officer (SHO), said that a van carrying 10 people was returning to Jhalawar from a wedding in Madhya Pradesh when it hit a speeding truck coming from the wrong side on NH-52.

Police said that the locals and the police teams reached the incident spot and took the injured people to the nearby hospital, where the doctors declared nine of them upon arrival, while one person who was critically injured was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit.

The deceased were identified as Hemraj Bagri (33), Ravishankar Bagri (25), Ashok Kumar (24), Deepak Bagri (24), Sonu Bagri (22), Rohit Jagadish (22), Ramkrishna Premchand (20), Saraula Premchand (20), and Rohit Bagri (16).

Their bodies have been sent for post-mortem, said SHO Vishnoi, adding they seized the truck and arrested the truck driver from a nearby village within hours. Further investigation is underway, he said.

The truck driver has been booked under sections 279 (rash driving endangering human life) and 304A (death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code, said police.