In a tragic incident, eight people died while three others sustained injuries as a vehicle plunged into a gorge at Nainital's Batalghat area in Uttarakhand on Monday night. As per reports, seven of them were citizens of Nepal.
It has been reported that the deceased people worked on a Jal Jeevan Mission project in Unchakot village of Betalghat.
The accident reportedly took place around 10.30 pm as driver Rajendra Kumar, a resident of Baskot village, lost control of the vehicle and plunged into a 200-metre gorge.
What did the police say?
Commenting on the incident, Aneesh Ahmed, station house officer (SHO) of Betalghat police station, said, “We rushed to the spot as soon as we received information and launched a rescue operation with the help of villagers and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF). It took two hours as it was dark, and the gorge was deep. Seven Nepalese citizens and the driver died.”
Ahmed said the place of the accident is around 60km from the Nainital district headquarters. The deceased worked on a Jal Jeevan Mission project in Unchakot village of Betalghat. As the work got over, nine Nepalese labourers booked a vehicle to return home in Tanakpur of Champawat district via Ramnagar late Monday evening.
According to police, the deceased were identified as Vishram Chaudhary (50), Dheeraj (45), Anantram Chaudhary (40), Vinod Chaudhary (38), Udayram Chaudhary (55), Tilak Chaudhary (45) Gopal Basniyat (60) and Rajendra Kumar.
The injured were identified as Shanti Chaudhary, Chhotu Chaudhary and Prem Bahadur.
