Car falls 40ft, 7 medical students killed

NAGPUR/WARDHA: Seven medical students returning from a birthday celebration were killed in Maharashtra’s

Wardha

around midnight on Monday when their car plunged 40ft from a bridge into the dry, rocky bed of the Badhari river along Deoli-Wardha Road. State BJP MLA Vijay Rahangdale’s son

Avishkar

, a first-year MBBS student, was among the dead.

All seven victims were students of Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences at Sawangi in Wardha. It took a night long operation for their bodies to be retrieved from the wreckage, the police said. PM Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences to the bereaved families on Tuesday and announced ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh for each life lost in the tragedy.

Barring Avishkar

, the rest of the deceased were from Bihar, UP and Odisha. They had travelled to Yavatmal, around 69km from Wardha, in intern Niteesh Singh’s car to celebrate first-year student

Pawan Shakti

’s birthday. The accident occurred on the return journey, about 20km before Wardha.

Niteesh was from Jharsuguda in Odisha while Pawan hailed from Bihar’s Gaya. The other victims were Niraj Chauhan of Gorakhpur in UP, Vivek Nandan of Gaya, Pratyush Singh of Gorakhpur and

Shubham Jaiswal

from UP’s Chandauli. Four of the deceased were in their final year of MBBS.

Selsura village sarpanch Sachin Kale told TOI four to five accidents had taken place in that area over the past two months alone. The SUV ferrying the students was to take the lane towards Wardha when it veered off the road at speed and crashed into the bridge barrier before tumbling over. Police suspect the vehicle was travelling at not less than 140kmph.

SP

Prashant Holkar

said a case of rash and negligent driving had been registered.