The accident took place near the MCD toll at Singhu border. (Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)
Five powerlifters, including an international-level athlete, died while a sixth was critically injured when the car they were travelling in rammed into a pillar near the Delhi-Haryana border in Alipur early on Sunday, police said. DCP (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta said the dead have been identified as Saksham Yadav (28), Tikam Chand alias Tinku (27), Saurabh Kumar (18), Yogesh alias Akash (24) and Harish Roy (20). The injured man, Rohit alias Bali (25), is recuperating at St Stephen’s Hospital.
Police said Yadav had represented India in international weightlifting championships in Slovakia and Moscow in 2016 and 2017 and had won gold medals. Chand had participated in various national-level championships, while Rohit was a state-level player.
According to police, the men were on their way to Murthal in Sonipat to celebrate Chand’s birthday when the incident took place. “The car first hit a divider before ramming into the pillar. The impact was such that the vehicle was completely damaged, and police had to use gas cutters to pull apart the wreckage and get the men out,” a police officer said.
Police said the car was being driven at a high speed as the speedometer was found to be stuck at 150 km/hour. Police are probing if the men were driving under the influence of alcohol as bottles of liquor and plastic glasses were found in the car.
Police said they received a PCR call at 3.20 am about an accident near the MCD toll at Singhu border. “A police team reached the spot and found the men trapped inside the vehicle. With the help of other commuters and toll employees, they managed to rescue the men and took them to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, where four of them were declared brought dead. Yadav was referred to AIIMS Trauma Centre, where he succumbed to injuries on Sunday evening,” the officer said.
The men used to live in the same locality and went to the same gym in Timarpur, police said, adding that the car, a Swift Dzire, belonged to Yadav’s sister who works with the Defence Research and Development Organisation.