Three killed, dozen injured as car rams into roadside crowd in Jharkhand

Three villagers were killed and a dozen injured after an over speeding car rammed into a roadside crowd in the intervening night of Monday and Tuesda at Barawn village under the Chainpur police station in Jharkhand’s Palamu district.

The mishap occurred when the local people were returning home after watching a cultural programme at a village temple at Chadhanwa.

The car was coming from Garhwa side. The place of occurrence is nearly 18 kilometres from the district headquarter town on Daltonganj-Garhwa road.

The deceased were identified as Udal Chaurasiya (60), Rohit Chaurasiya (14) and Dinanath Mahto ak Madhu (59). Udal and Rohit belonged to Chainpur police station of Palamu while Madhu hailed from Danda police station of Garhwa district. They died during treatment soon afterwards. The injured were admitted at Palamu medical college and hospital for treatment.

According to reports, the local temple committee had organised a cultural programme and a small fair to mark the last Monday of the Shrawan month and the deceased and victims were part of the villagers who had assembled there to watch the proceedings.

The Palamu superintendent of police Reeshma Ramesan said, “Death of three persons has been confirmed while three others are seriously injured. We have seized the car that looked brand new. The driver of the car managed to flee after the accident.”

Meanwhile, the local Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) legislator Alok Chaurasia met the bereaved family members of those killed on Tuesday and demanded ₹3 lakh compensation to each family.

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren expressed grief and directed the district police to take stern against the culprits.