Nine children crushed to death by SUV

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

Nine children of a Government primary school were crushed to death by a speeding vehicle when they were crossing the highway in front of the school at Dharampur under Meenapur block in north Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district on Saturday. In this tragic incident, 24 children were left injured. They were rushed to SKMCH in Muzaffarpur where four of them were stated to be critical.

The tragedy struck the children who were crossing the road after the school hour was over. The vehicle, involved in the gory incident, belonged to a BJP leader Manoj Baitha who is State secretary of BJP’s one of the cells. A board of the BJP was also affixed on the front of the Bolero. The driver escaped leaving the vehicle behind.

Reports suggested that the driver seemed to be under influence of alcohol and was coming from Sitamarhi. Only minutes before this tragedy, he had reportedly hit somebody and then accelerated the speed when he crushed nine children to death.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed deep shock over the gory incident and sympathised with the bereaved families.

“This is a highly tragic incident and it will be probed from all angles and action will be initiated on the basis of inquiry report,” he said. He also directed the administration to pay Rs 4 lakh ex gratia to kin of each victim. The CM said all care would be taken to injured children by the Government.

There was no clarification from the BJP on the involvement of the vehicle of its worker but the party cancelled a Holi programme in Patna on Saturday.

Former CM Rabri Devi, former Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and former Minister Tej Pratap Yadav expressed their grief over the incident. Congress leader Sadanand Singh said this was very tragic incident and suggested that speed breakers should be laid near the schools everywhere in Bihar in bid to check such gruesome incidents. Demanding a high level probe into the incident Animal Husbandry Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras spoke to authorities of the hospital and directed for better treatment of the wounded children.