Gonda SUV accident Body of 7-year-old girl fished out from canal death toll now at 12

Gonda (UP), Aug 4 (PTI) The body of a seven-year-old girl was recovered from the Saryu canal in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda on Monday afternoon, a day after an SUV carrying devotees plunged into the canal, taking the death toll in the accident to 12.
    The accident occurred on Sunday near Belwa Bahuta when the victims from Sihagaon village were en route to the Prithvinath Temple in Khargupur to offer prayers at the Prithvinath Temple in Khargupur.
    The vehicle was carrying 15 people, including the driver. With the help of villagers and rescue teams, 11 bodies were recovered from the submerged vehicle, while, Rachna (7) was missing.
    State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers assisted in the search, which resumed on Monday and her body was recovered near Kudasan village in the Manakpur area, around 30 to 35 kilometre from the accident site, Superintendent of Police Vineet Jailswal said.
    The body has been sent for post-mortem, he added. According to eyewitnesses, the road was slippery due to rain and the SUV slipped into the canal after the driver applied brakes.
    Pinky, a survivor, met Devipatan Divisional Commissioner Shashi Bhushan Lal Sushil on Sunday night and appealed for help in tracing her missing sister.
    She was seated in the front and managed to jump out when the vehicle's door opened and survived by swimming to safety. Her mother and two sisters drowned.
    Nine of those killed were from the same family. The victims were identified as Prahlad Gupta's wife Bina (44), daughters Kajal (22) and Mehak alias Rinki (14), brother Ramkaran (36), his wife Anasuya (34), daughter Saumya (9), son Shubh (7), youngest brother Ram Roop’s wife Durgesh Nandini (35) and son Amit (14).
    Prahlad's neighbour Sanju (26), and her sister-in-law Gudiya alias Anju (20) also died in the accident.
    The bodies were cremated in Ayodhya on Sunday night, while the children were buried in Gonda.
    Prahlad Gupta, who works as a manager at Meva Lal Madhyamik Vidyalaya, survived the accident but lost multiple family members.
    He said that if he had been in the vehicle, he too might have been killed, but atleast he would not have to see the painful death of his family members.
    The SUV driver Sita Sharan said, "Everything happened so fast that I could not understand anything. As soon as the vehicle lost control, I opened the door and jumped out and two others sitting in the front seat also jumped into the canal."
    Rachna, who was standing behind, came out of the vehicle in a jolt and was swept away by strong current.
    Injured survivors, including Pinky, Satyam, neighbour Ram Lalan Verma and driver Sita Sharan, are undergoing treatment at a local community health centre.
    A teenaged girl, who survived the accident, said, "We were visiting the Prithvinath Temple. At the time of the incident, most of us were singing bhajans."
    Rahul Verma, a resident of Itiyathok and an eyewitness to the accident, said the road was slippery due to rain in the morning. When the driver of the SUV applied the brakes, it slipped and fell into the canal, he said.
    "We immediately called the police and villagers to the spot and pulled out the SUV with the help of a rope," he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)