Post News Network
Rourkela/Berhampur, Feb 24 : Seven members of a marriage party including the newlyweds were killed and two others seriously injured in the wee hours Tuesday near Lathikata on NH-143 in Sundargarh district.
The party, after solemnization of the marriage, was returning in a car from Berhampur in Ganjam district while it collided head on with a dumper.
The deceased were groom Sushant Rath and his niece Chandrama Rath of Fertiliser Colony in Rourkela, bride Sunita Panda, the second daughter of late Sadananda Panda and her two sisters Sonali (elder) and Sanjukta at Jagannath Vihar of Sriram Nagar in Berhampur, car driver Susanta Giri and photographer Ramananda Mishra of Gangadharpalli.
The groom’s elder brother Santosh Rath and his wife Suchitra Rath, who were admitted to Ispat General Hospital in Rourkela in critical condition, were battling for their lives, police said.
The tragedy sent shockwaves in both Steel City and Silk City. On being alerted, police rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies from the vehicle. The police used gas cutters to extricate the injured persons from the vehicle.
The driver of the dumper managed to flee from the scene after the accident and the police have launched a manhunt to nab him.
Bijay, the husband of Sonali, and Babu, the brother of the bride, miraculously escaped the mishap. The two were to accompany the marriage party but due to space crunch in the car they left for Rourkela by a bus.
Besides her husband, Sonali is survived by an 11-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter. Puspa Panda, who brought up the three daughters after her husband’s death was in a state of utter shock after losing all her children at one go.
The police informed the family members of the bride who arrived in Rourkela to take the bodies.
