Dhenkanal: A celebratory journey turned into a tragedy early Thursday morning when five members of a wedding party died of drowning after their car swerved off the road and plunged into a pond at Chaipur, under Sadar police limits in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district.
The deceased have been identified as Sri Ram Sahu (25), Abinash Sahu (28), Rakesh Kumar Sahu (25), Chandrakanta Swain (27), and Abhijit Sahu (25), residents of Bangurisingh and Dhenkanal.
According to reports, they were part of a Baraat (wedding procession of a groom), which had already set out from Bangursingh in a convoy of vehicles for the wedding of Abhishek Sahu, son of Santosh Kumar Sahu of Bangursingh village, with the daughter of Rohit Kumar Prusti of Indupur village. However, one of the vehicles fell into a roadside pond after the driver reportedly lost control over the wheels en route on a curved stretch of the road.
On being informed about the mishap, Sadar Police rushed to the spot. Local villagers also assisted by diving into the water body. While two among the seven young men were pulled out alive from the submerged vehicle, others died of possible suffocation before they could be rescued. The bodies later were recovered and sent to Dhenkanal District Headquarters Hospital for postmortem.
“The vehicle lost control on the sharp bend due to high speed. We rescued the occupants by breaking open the car door inside the pond,” said Prakash Chandra Barik, a resident who joined the rescue operation.
Meanwhile, police have launched an investigation to ascertain the exact cause of the accident.
