The incident occurred at Karha village near the campus of IIT Mandi at around 9.30 pm. (Representational)
Three people lost their lives when a pick-up vehicle carrying them rolled down the hill near Kamand in Mandi district on Friday night, the police said.
The deceased were identified as Nidhi Singh, 32, resident of Mehwa village in Dehra tehsil of Kangra district; Bhupinder Sharma, 24, resident of Balt village in Balh tehsil of Mandi district; and Lovedeep, 18, resident of Samlon village in Balh.
The incident occurred at Karha village near the campus of IIT Mandi at around 9.30 pm. The victims were travelling in a Mahindra Bolero pick-up and are believed to have accidentally lost control of the vehicle due to which it swerved off the road and fell down around 200 feet into a deep gorge, investigating officials said.
Hearing the crash, area residents and the security staff at IIT rushed to the site of the crash and also informed the local police. The victims were then taken out of the mangled remains of the vehicle.
“One person died on the spot and another one was rushed to the zonal hospital at Mandi where doctors declared him dead on arrival. The third victim was referred to IGMC hospital in Shimla and he breathed his last on Saturday,” said an official.
The police said that it is not yet clear who was driving the vehicle and for what purpose the victims were travelling, since all occupants of the vehicle are dead. Singh worked as a salesperson at a petrol pump in Kamand and the other two victims, also currently settled in the Kamand area, were his acquaintances. They are believed to have been travelling from a nearby village Mehan towards Kamand, an official said.
The police have registered a case under Sections 279, 337 and 304A of the IPC at the Padhar police station, and bodies of the deceased were handed to their families after conducting post-mortem examinations.