Four national-level powerlifters were killed and two others, including a world champion, were seriously injured when their car met with an accident near the Delhi-Haryana border on Sunday, police said.
The accident took place at around 4 am, near Alipur village of Delhi, close to the Singhu border between Delhi and Haryana.
The victims were travelling on the Delhi-Panipat National Highway-1 in a Maruti Suzuki Swift Dezire car.
While four powerlifters were killed in the crash, Saksham Yadav, who won a gold medal for the country in the 2017 powerlifting championship in Moscow, was seriously injured along with another weightlifter, a police official said.
Yadav and the other injured powerlifter were rushed to the Max Hospital in New Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh for treatment.
The car, according to the official, first hit a divider and then crashed into an electricity pole. Due to severe impact, the car’s roof was blown away.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta said the deceased were identified as Tikamchand, Saurabh, Akash and Harish Roy.
The injured were identified as Saksham Yadav, a national level powerlifter, and Rohit, he said.
According to Yadav’s friend, the doctors have said that he is in a critical state.
It was Rohit’s birthday and the friends were celebrating it, the police said.
It is being probed whether it is a case of drunken driving since there were some liquor bottles found in the vehicle, the police said.
As per a report in The Times of India, police have registered a case of negligent driving and are also scanning the CCTV footage recorded near Singhu border to determine the cause of the mishap. (The Quint)
