BHOPAL: Nine police personnel, including a Circle Superintendent of Police (CSP), were removed from duty after a paddy-laden truck ran over devotees outside the Sheetla Mata temple on the outskirts of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, killing 15 people and injuring at least 26, officials said.
The accident occurred around 1.30 am on Sunday, when devotees had gathered outside the temple for early morning prayers on Mahashtami during the ongoing Sharadiya Navratri celebrations.
The truck, which was transporting paddy from Gwalior’s Dabra grain market to Punjab, allegedly entered an area where vehicle movement was prohibited because of the heavy influx of devotees. According to a senior police official, the driver appeared to have followed Google Maps to take a shorter route.
The truck reportedly lost control on a narrow, sloping road before crashing into the temple’s entrance gate and boundary wall and ploughing into devotees waiting to enter the shrine. The impact damaged the structure, leaving some victims trapped beneath debris and the overturned vehicle.
Investigators suspect that the truck’s brakes failed. Another truck carrying paddy to Punjab was reportedly following the vehicle, a senior police official said.
The driver, Dilbag Singh, a resident of Punjabi Colony in Delhi, and the truck’s owner, Harpreet Singh, a native of Ludhiana in Punjab, have been taken into custody.