Six of a family die in road mishap in U.P.’s Balrampur, CM announces ex gratia

Six members of a family, including two children, were killed when the car in which they were travelling apparently collided with an unidentified vehicle in Balrampur district in early hours of Saturday, police said.

The incident took place near Vishambharpur village on Utraula highway, they added. As per the police, all occupants of the car died on the spot. They said the accident occurred at around 2am when the family of one Sonu Shah was travelling from Nainital to Deoria to attend a family wedding scheduled for April 20.

Expressing his grief over the deaths, chief minister Yogi Adityanath ex gratia of ₹ 2 lakh each to next of kin of the deceased. He also directed the district officials to provide all possible help to the aggrieved family.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP), Balrampur, Namrata Srivastava said the deceased were identified as Sonu Shah (28), who worked in a paper mill in Nainital, his wife Sujawati Shah (26), their two children Ruchika (6) and Divyanshu (4), Sonu’s younger brother Ravi (19) and sister Khushi (18), all residents of Deoria district.

She further said their family members had been informed of the tragedy. The ASP said Sonu Shah was driving the car. As per her, the tyres marks of some heavy vehicle at the accident site suggested the car’s head-on collision with a truck.

Srivastava said the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident fled after the mishap. BJP MLA from Balrampur Palturam has asked the officials to immediately arrest the driver of the unidentified vehicle. In-charge, Utraula police station, Vipul Pandey said with help of CCTV camera footage, police had started an inquiry into the mishap.