Double tragedy strikes family in Maharashtra

In a double tragedy for a family, a truck rammed into an ambulance carrying the body of a youth who committed suicide, and killed three of his relatives near Sondale village in the district, late on Sunday night, officials said here on Monday.

According to Dhule Police Control official Himmatrao Mahale, the ambulance was transporting the body of a 21-year-old student, Prashant D. Paradke of Adarsh Polytechnic College, who hanged himself on Saturday morning at his home in Deopur area of the city.

Hearing about his death, his grieving mother, uncle and other relatives rushed to Dhule to complete the formalities and claim the body after the autopsy for the last rites in their native Kundal village, in adjoining Nandurbar district.

Late on Sunday night, when the ambulance was proceeding to Kundal village with the victim's body and his relatives, a truck loaded with sugarcane coming from Chimthana in the opposite direction rammed into it near Sondale, Mahale told IANS.

The ambulance was crushed and virtually reduced to a heap of metal by the impact, killing three persons and injuring three others in it.

Mahale said the deceased in the grisly accident include the dead boy's mother Mangla, 47, uncle Uttar Paradke, 40, and an aunt Gundarbai Paradke, 55.

The ambulance driver, Gorakh Prahlad Ahire, and two other passengers Mithun Paradke, 25 and Deepak Vasave, 20 are seriously injured and have been shifted to a hospital in Dhule.

The Dhule Police have registered offences of negligent driving resulting in death against the truck driver under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Motor Vehicles Act, Mahale added.

--IANS

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