Jaipur: Seven of a family, including two children, died after the car they were travelling in skidded off the road and plunged into a deep, rainwater-filled underpass along Jaipur Ring Road early Sunday.“We are probing the case. Prima facie, it appears that the car was speeding and was being driven drowsily. The driver lost control of the vehicle, which crashed into the divider, slipped through a 20ft-wide passage, falling 16ft below into a water-filled underpass,” a cop said. Police suspect the accident occurred around 4am near Prahladpura under Shivdaspura police station area.Shivdaspura SHO Surendra Saini identified the victims as Ram Raj Vaishnav (38) of Sanganer who was driving, his wife Madhu (36), their son Rudra (14 months), Ram’s brother-in-law Ashok Vaishnav (47) of Bhilwara, Ashok’s wife Seema (48), their son Rohit (30), and Rohit’s son Gajraj (6).The family left Jaipur on Sept 12 in Ram Raj’s taxi for Haridwar to immerse the ashes of Ashok’s father, Gopal Lal Vaishnav, who died on Sept 8. After completing the post-death rituals, they were heading back when tragedy struck around 4am, ASI (traffic accidents) Ram Ratan said.The accident came to light around 12.30pm when passersby spotted the submerged vehicle and alerted cops. The Shivdaspura police reached the scene and used a crane to retrieve the car. It took nearly an hour to recover all seven bodies. Police said Ram Raj and Rohit were trapped under the dashboard.Relatives said they last spoke to the victims around 11pm Saturday, when the family was in New Delhi, following which they lost contact. They said Ram Raj had four other children other than Rudra.His wife Madhu lived with him in Jaipur. Ashok worked as a temple priest, while Rohit ran a grocery shop in Phulia Kalan. The bodies were handed over to the kin after the post-mortem. The funeral will be held Monday.Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma condoled the tragedy on X, calling it “extremely tragic and heart-wrenching”.Bhilwara district collector Jasmeet Singh Sandhu said that four of the seven people, who died in the accident and hail from Phulia Kalan in Shahpura, were enrolled in the Chief Minister’s Ayushman Health Scheme and would receive financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each. The others who died will receive assistance from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund if they are not registered under the health scheme, he said. Phulia Kalan tehsildar has been dispatched to Jaipur to monitor the situation.
