1 killed, 2 missing as car plunges into river in Doda

Ramban, Nov 30: One person was killed and two others are missing when a car in which they were travelling skidded off the road and plunged into river Chenab near Kandote village, located between Thatari and Doda on Batote –Kishtwar National Highway, this morning.

Body was the deceased woman was recovered. It is being presumed that two other persons including the driver and a elderly person got washed away in strong water currents of river Chenab . However a search operation with the help of rubber boats was launched by the volunteers, police and SDRF.

Police sources said a car bearing registration number JK06B-2993 on its way to Doda from Charia village skidded off the road and rolled down into fast-flowing river Chenab and submerged. They said on getting information locals of adjoining areas, Army (ROP), and Police from nearby stations reached the spot for rescue operations.

They recovered the body of a woman from the river bank who might have thrown out of the car before it fell into Chenab. Some parts including the number plate of the car was also recovered from the river bank.

Later, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), volunteers of a local NGO, Ababeel also reached the spot and launched a search operation with the help of boats in river Chenab to locate submerged vehicles and their occupants. The deceased woman was identified by the police as Purva Devi (70) wife of Babu Ram resident of village Indralla ,Thatari.

They said after conducting postmortem and other legal formalities at CHC Thathari the body of the deceased woman was handed over to legal heirs. Police said the search operation to locate and retrieve other occupants of the accidental submerged car is on. Police quoting locals of Charia village identified two missing persons as Sanjeet Kumar (25) son of Satish Kumar and Beli Ram (75) son of Pannu Ram.

Relatives of the victims said Ranjeet Kumar was heading towards Jammu to appear for the SI exam and he was accompanied by two elderly relatives for medical checkups in Jammu.

Senior Superintendent of Traffic Police National Highways, Rohit Baskotra said that the road condition was good and 40 feet wide at the accident spot near Kandote. He said the car was heading towards Doda and an accident happened in the wrong direction (side) despite being on a wide road.

He said district police Doda is investigating the reason behind this car accident. Meanwhile, the search operation to locate the missing persons was postponed for night.

A police official informed that no trace of the car or its two occupants was found during a day long search operation to retrieve bodies of two missing persons in river Chenab at Kandote. He said the car and its occupants had washed away in strong water currents of river Chenab.