4-yr-old dies as state-run bus drags her for 20m near Haldwani

Nainital: A four-year-old girl died after a state roadways bus hit her and dragged her for nearly 20m on Monday on the Bhimtal-Haldwani road. The incident occurred near Ranibagh when the child, Kanak, was returning from an anganwadi with her mother, siblings and a few other children.Police said a bus was from the Rudrapur depot. Passersby pelted stones at the vehicle to force it to stop and damaged its windows. They also alerted officials.Traffic movement was disrupted, with jams reported from Tikonia to Bhimtal Tiraha, Jyolikot and Saldi. Police reached the spot and brought the situation under control. The body was later sent for postmortem.SP (City) Manoj Kumar Katyal said, “To prevent such accidents, a no-entry has been enforced across the city during the day. Since the bus belonged to the state-run roadways service, it was exempted from the restriction. An investigation is underway. The driver has been detained and the vehicle seized.”Kanak’s father, Jeevan Lal, a resident of Bisalpur in Pilibhit district, works as a labourer at Jain Iron in Ranibagh. He had brought his wife, Rajkumari, and their three children to live with him around three months ago.