Keonjhar: Four persons died on the spot and another seriously injured when a car in which they were travelling hit a roadside tree near Maidanakela under Sadar Police limits in Odisha’s Keonjhar district late on Monday.
The deceased were identified as Kalpataru Tirthabasi Parida, principal of Government Engineering College, Chaitanya Bikash Sahu, vice-principal of Gayatri College, Prasant Kumar Patra, a BSNL employee of West Bengal telecom circle, and Rajesh Kumar Guru, a native of Cuttack district.
The seriously injured Kamalakhya Parida, son of Kalpataru Tirthabasi Parida, has been admitted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
According to police, these five persons had gone to Rairangpur to attend the Satsang of Guru Anukulachandra. After attending the programme, they were on the way to Keonjhar in a car when Kamalakhya, who was driving the car, lost control over the vehicle which skidded off the road and hit a roadside tree.
While Kamalakhya sustained multiple fractures on his chest, shoulder and head, the remaining four died on the spot.
The incident took place at around 2 am.
Following information, police and fire brigade rushed to the spot and brought out the dead bodies from the vehicle and admitted Kamalakhya at the district headquarters hospital. But as his condition became critical, he was shifted to Cuttack.
Postmortem of the four bodies would be conducted on Tuesday, police added.
