E-Paper
Three police personnel killed as bus rams into truck due to fog in Punjab’s Mukerian
The bus, carrying policemen, was going from the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) headquarters in Jalandhar to Gurdaspur when the accident took place at around 7 am near Emma Mangat on the Jalandhar-Pathankot highway
A police bus rammed into a cement-laden truck amid dense fog in Mukerian sub-division on Wednesday morning, leaving three police personnel dead and at least 15 others injured, police said.
The bus, carrying policemen, was going from the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) headquarters in Jalandhar to Gurdaspur when the accident took place at around 7 am near Emma Mangat on the Jalandhar-Pathankot highway. The deceased were identified as assistant sub-inspector Hardev Singh, senior constable Gurpreet Singh, who was the bus driver, and woman constable Shalu Rana, police said.
The injured were admitted to civil hospitals in Dasuya and Mukerian, from where the critically injured were referred to Jalandhar.
The locals, who had called the police and ambulances and helped the police extract the bodies, said the collision was so strong that the front part of the bus got stuck in the back of the truck. “The driver was alive when they reached the site but died before he could be rescued. He was so badly entrapped in the wreck that we could not pull him out physically. A hydraulic machine was later called to recover his body, but by that time, he had died”, said a local who was part of the first group to reach the accident site.
Hoshiarpur senior superintendent of police Surendra Lamba, who visited the accident site, said the cause of the mishap was under investigation.
“It can be due to dense fog. It has also been reported that the driver tried to avoid another vehicle or some stray cattle. In any case, the truck driver, who had parked the vehicle along the road, was at fault”, he added.
Mukerian deputy superintendent of police Kulwinder Singh Virk revealed that a case under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (rash driving), 283 (obstruction in public way) 337 (causing hurt) 338 (endangering life of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the truck driver, who is yet to be arrested.
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann expressed grief over the death of the cops and announced financial assistance of ₹2 crore each to the families of the deceased.
In a statement in Chandigarh, Mann said it is unfortunate that these police personnel lost their lives in a road accident. This is a huge loss for the state in general and for the aggrieved families of the cops in particular, he said.
“Punjab police are our honour and we stand with the families of our bravehearts”, the CM posted on X.
Out of the ₹2 crore, ₹1 crore will be given as ex-gratia by the state government whereas another payment of insurance cover worth ₹1 crore will be made by the HDFC Bank, Mann added.
