Speeding in fog: Witnesses say it all looked like a stunt

CHANDIGARH: Five men, including an international-level powerlifter, were killed and one more person injured when their car met with an accident in the early hours on Sunday near the Delhi-Haryana border.
World powerlifting champion Saksham Yadav, who was admitted in an "extremely critical" condition at the AIIMS Trauma Centre in Delhi succumbed to his injuries in the evening.

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 9.10 am because his condition was deteriorating. After battling for life for over 14 hours, he died.



"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 6.38 pm."

Police said all six of them had met at Tikam Chand'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 metres 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," said Harun Ansari.

"The fog was dense. The entire incident took place in just a few seconds. Before we could react, the car had turned turtle and the victims were lying in the car in pools of blood," said Harun Ansari," said Ansari.

Yadav's coach, Sunil Lochab, said the young powerlifter was one of the brightest talents in the sport in India. Yadav, a resident of Nangloi in north Delhi, won gold for India at the senior powerlifting world championship in Moscow, organized by the World Powerlifting Congress, in November 2017.

He had also bagged gold in the world junior and sub-junior powerlifting championship in Szczyrk, Poland, in 2016.

"Tikamchand was a veteran on the circuit. He used to participate in several events organised by our federation. Some others were junior lifters who had a great career ahead of them. It's a very tragic incident and it's a big loss for the sport," Indian Powerlifting Federation president Mohit Suri said.

The Dzire car, bearing a ministry of defence sticker, belonged to Saksham's elder sister, Isha, who works with DRDO.

The bodies of Yadav's four gym partners were handed over to their families after post-mortem examinations at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Jahangirpuri, northwest Delhi.

Police said they had lodged an FIR at Alipur police station and are investigating whether the driver was drunk, or not.

Powerlifting is not an Olympic sport, though it is about lifting weights. Unlike weightlifting, powerlifting is less technical; it involves bench presses, squats and dead lifts while weightlifting has the snatch and clean and jerk.

The sport is quite popular among Indian youth. According to IPF president Mohit Suri, it offers the chance of government jobs. "The sport has its own appeal. There is some quota for powerlifters in some government jobs. Railways have a major powerlifting team," he said.