Rourkela: Three members of a family, including a newlywed woman, died after the SUV they were travelling in crashed into a roadside tree near Gandharia village in Jharkhand on Saturday. Rashmi Ranjan Sahoo (42), a home guard of Raiboga police station in Odisha’s Sundargarh district, who was driving the car, and five others sustained critical injuries.
The deceased were identified as Sahoo’s wife, Preeti Kumari (35), Bimala Debi (60), his grandmother-in-law, and Pinki Mumari (30), his aunt. The accident occurred around 3 pm when they were returning from Bhadrakali Temple at Itakhori after offering prayers.
Sahoo and Preeti got married on April 20 and visited his in-laws’ home in Chatra district on April 25. On Saturday, Sahoo, his wife and seven of her family members went to the temple. While driving back, Sahoo lost control of the vehicle, leading to the fatal crash.
Locals helped police retrieve the bodies from the mangled vehicle. Sahoo, his two sisters-in-law, a brother-in-law, and two minor girls, were admitted to hospital with critical injuries.
Bodies of the three deceased were handed over to family members after post-mortem on Sunday.
P K Pradhan, inspector in-charge of Raiboga police station, said, “It is a really tragic and shocking incident.”