Tragedy strikes East Delhi neighborhood

Death had never visited this narrow bylane located in northeast Delhi’s Brahmpuri area like it did on Monday night.

Death had never visited this narrow bylane located in northeast Delhi’s Brahmpuri area like it did on Monday night.

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It was home to six of the seven Delhi residents who were killed when their hired vehicle hit a bridge and skidded into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district on early Tuesday morning.

The men were identified as Nitin Sharma (22), Sonu Kashyap (22), Deepak Garg (27), Gajinder Rastogi (20), Shailesh Bhati (20), Yakshat Sharma (20) and Sunil Garg (33).

The deceased were part of a group of eight friends, who had decided to start the New Year with a pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi.

“Six residents of Delhi were killed on the spot when a Scorpio in which they were travelling skidded off the road and fell into a gorge at Dadhol village near Ghumarwin (in Bilaspur district) at 12.20 am Tuesday,” Superintendent of Police (Bilaspur) Kuldeep Sharma said. “One person succumbed to injuries at Regional hospital, Bilaspur.”

He said that group were on their way from Shimla to the popular Hindu shrine Jawalamukhi in Kangra district.
According to Delhi Police, all with the exception of Sunil – who was driving the car when the accident happened, were neighbours.

“They were aged between 20 to 27 years and all of them were working,” said a senior police officer.
Ganesh Sharma and Pravesh — next-door neighbours and the only two to have survived the accident — were admitted to the Bilaspur district hospital, Sharma said.

According to family members, the eight friends had left Delhi around 8 pm on Sunday evening.

“They told us that they would go to Vaishno Devi and be back in three days,” said Umesh Sharma (29), Ganesh’s uncle.

“I had talked to Ganesh yesterday afternoon, and he had told me they would first go to Shimla to watch the snowfall and then to Vaishno Devi.”

Sharma said that the family was informed about the accident minutes after it occurred, “I got a call on my mobile around 12:30 pm from an unknown number. The caller said that the boys had been in an accident.”

Family members said that the overturned vehicle in which the men had been travelling was seen by a family that was passing by and they stopped to help.

“The same person who had called Ganesh’s uncle also informed the police,” said Montu, whose 22-year-old cousin, Sonu Kashyap was among those who died.