Four Uttar Pradesh Police personnel and a complainant in a kidnapping case were killed on Tuesday morning after their SUV crashed into a parked truck on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway in Haryana’s Nuh district during an overtaking attempt.
The accident occurred around 10:30 am, nearly a kilometre before the Dhulawat toll plaza. According to police, the Scorpio SUV was travelling at high speed when the driver attempted to overtake another vehicle, lost control, and rammed into a stationary truck parked along the roadside.
The collision crushed the front portion of the SUV, killing all five occupants on the spot. Rescue teams reportedly took nearly an hour to recover the bodies after cutting open the mangled vehicle.
The deceased policemen were identified as sub-inspectors Mohit Kumar Yadav (32) and Satyabhan Singh (59), along with constables Ashok Kumar (28) and Pradeep Kumar (27), all posted at Jalaun police station in Uttar Pradesh.
The fifth victim was 35-year-old Amreek Singh, a resident of Jalaun and the complainant in a kidnapping case. Police sources said the Scorpio belonged to Amreek, who was also driving the vehicle at the time of the accident.
Officials said the team was travelling to conduct a raid and rescue Amreek’s cousin, Bijender Singh, who was allegedly abducted from an agricultural field on Monday morning.
In the FIR filed in Jalaun, Amreek alleged that four unidentified men kidnapped Bijender over a dispute related to farmland leased for cultivation. The case had been registered under sections related to abduction and theft under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and the police team was reportedly coordinating with the Special Operations Group during the operation.
Eyewitnesses said the truck had been parked on the roadside for some time and its driver was away at a nearby kiosk when the SUV crashed into it. The truck driver fled the scene after the accident.
Teams from Sadar Tauru police station rushed to the site and launched rescue operations. SHO Shishram said specialised equipment had to be used to extricate the bodies from the wreckage. The bodies were later sent to a hospital in Nuh for post-mortem examinations.
DSP Abhimanyu Lohan said preliminary findings suggest overspeeding and the illegal parking of the truck on the expressway may have contributed to the crash.
“Prima facie, speeding and the parking of the truck on the expressway led to the accident,” the officer said, adding that police were trying to trace the truck driver and determine whether warning signs or hazard indicators had been placed near the vehicle.
Authorities said an FIR would be registered under relevant sections dealing with negligence, rash driving, and endangering life once a formal complaint is received.
In Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed condolences over the deaths and directed officials to coordinate with the Haryana government to ensure the victims’ bodies were returned to their families at the earliest.
