Five killed after car plunges into gorge in Uttarakhand

The accident took place on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway near Devprayag.

The police recovered a 67-page-long suicide note from the crime scene which revealed the murderer’s intention to kill more people. (Getty Images/iStockphoto/representative use)

Five people were killed after their car plunged into a gorge on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway near Devprayag about 120 km away from Dehradun on Sunday evening, officials said.

The deceased were all men, including two each from Uttarakhand and Haryana and one from Uttar Pradesh, said officials of the state disaster response force which launched a search and rescue operation soon after the car went over the edge and plunged about 70 metres.

Praveen Alok, spokesperson for SDRF said, "The five people were travelling in the car on the highway when it fell down the gorge in Saurpani area of Devprayag."

"The accident was spotted by the locals who informed the police which called the SDRF team for search and rescue. Two teams of SDRF comprising about 20 personnel rushed to the spot. Three bodies have been recovered while two are yet to be retrieved," said Alok.

The deceased were identified as Dhiraj Singh, resident of Pauri Garhwal, Sanjeev Kumar, resident of Rishikesh, Ajit, a resident of Jhajjar, Haryana, Pawan Singh, a resident of Gurgaon, Haryana and Jogendra Singh from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

"In the initial probe, it has been found that the accident was caused after the car's steering wheel got locked," Alok said.