“Please tell me, where are my husband and daughter? There is no need to treat me… first tell me how are they. Their well being will heal me naturally,” said 25-year-old Sunita, a resident of Rae Bareli, who was among those injured in the bus accident near Agra on Monday.

The mishap on Yamuna Expressway killed at least 29 people and injured more than 15.

All those visiting her at Agra’s Sri Krishna Hospital, including medical staff, were facing the same question from the woman in tears.

Finding no proper answer, she asked a visitor to dial her husband’s number. But the call was not answered because her husband was no more. No one had the courage to tell Sunita that she had lost both her husband and daughter in the accident of the UP Roadways bus in which they were travelling to Delhi. “I was travelling with my husband Bhanu Pratap, son Yuvraj and one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Riya. We were going to Delhi where my husband gets a contract for steel polishing. We hail from Khagiya Kheda village of Rae Bareli and had moved to Delhi for a better life,” stated Sunita.

“Around 4:30am, the bus fell into the drain. I blacked out and have no idea what happened after that,” she said. Her daughter Riya’s body was amongst other bodies brought early at the post-mortem house. A ‘payal’ (anklet) placed on it as an identification mark moved everyone there. Initially, her husband Bhanu Pratap’s whereabouts were not known as his name did not figure in the list of injured and deceased. The medical staff kept telling Sunita that her husband and daughter were being treated elsewhere.

“I got a photograph of the girl whose body was sent for post mortem examination and asked Sunita if it was her daughter. She said yes. I could not gather the courage to tell her the truth and ended up saying that the girl was under treatment,” said a cop on duty at the hospital.

Later in the day, it was found that Bhanu Pratap was among the dead. But Sunita was not informed about the deaths. Her son Yuvraj, 5, had a miraculous escape in the accident. He was sitting near her without talking to anyone.

Meanwhile, another injured woman Manju was asking for her husband Satya Prakash Sharma whose name was on the list of those who died.

First Published: Jul 09, 2019 10:48 IST