POWERLIFTING CHAMP, 4 FRIENDS DIE SPEEDING IN FOG ON NH-1

Were On Way To Murthal Dhaba For Parathas

Pankhuri Yadav, Hindol Basu & Manvir Saini TNN

New Delhi/Chandigarh: World powerlifting champion Saksham Yadav and four of his gym partners, themselves powerlifters, were killed and a fifth friend critically injured when they were speeding

through dense fog on the Delhi-Panipat highway (NH-1) early Sunday morning and their Swift Dzire hit the road divider and two poles, careered out of control and flipped over many times. They had been on their way to a Murthal dhaba to eat parathas.

Police said the accident occurred due to speed and low visibility due to fog. “The speed of the car was very high, and we found a few bottles around so the possibility of drunken driving has not been ruled out,” said DCP (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta.

PCR staff present at the spot alerted Alipur police station at about 4am, the police said. All six people had to be extricated from the mangled car; they were taken to a nearby private hospital where four of the 21-year-old powerlifting champion’s gym partners — Tikamchand (27), Saurabh

(18), Yogesh (24) and Harish Rai (20) — were declared dead. Saksham and Rohit were rushed to Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh; from there Saksham was referred to AIIMS Trauma Centre at 9.10am because his condition was deteriorating. After battling for life for over 14 hours, he died.

Witnesses say it all looked like a stunt

He had three cardiac arrests, twice at Max and once in the Trauma Centre,” the AIIMS bulletin said. “The 21-year-old was extremely critical, with low chances of survival, and was declared dead at 6.38pm.”

Police said all six of them had met at Tikamchand’s house in Timarpur, north Delhi. After that, they had roamed the area for over two hours before finally deciding to drive to Murthal for parathas.

The Dzire, the police said, hit the divider barely 100 metre from the Singhu border. Trying to regain control, the driver swung sharply to the left, crashed into two poles standing together and then flipped over at least three times.

Eyewitnesses told TOI the accident looked like an action movie stunt. “I work at a petrol pump and the accident took place just in front of it. It was around 3.50am, a few of us were here when we saw a car heading towards the border at high speed. The fog was dense. The entire incident took place in just a few seconds. Before we could react, the car had turned turtle,” said Harun Ansari.

Yadav, a resident of Nangloi in north Delhi, won gold for India at the senior powerlifting world championship in Moscow, organised by the World Powerlifting Congress, in 2017. He had also bagged gold in the world junior and sub-junior powerlifting championship in Poland in 2016.

“Tikamchand was a veteran on the circuit. Some others were junior lifters who had a great career ahead of them. It’s a big loss for the sport,” Indian Powerlifting Federation president Mohit Suri said. The Dzire, bearing a ministry of defence sticker, belonged to Saksham’s elder sister, Isha, who works with DRDO. Police said they had lodged an FIR.

(TOI)