COIMBATORE: Three members of a family from Tirupur were among eight people who died after their vehicle plunged into a deep gorge recently in Himachal Pradesh.
Police identified the deceased as Karthikeyan, 48, his wife Manimala, 42 and their 13-year-old son Nandan, studying class seven and members of another family from Chhattisgarh, along with the driver of the vehicle.
Police said Manimala was from Sengunthapuram First Street in Tirupur, while Karthikeyan was from Erode, and they were running a catering service in Bengaluru. They had gone to Himachal Pradesh for their son’s participation in a taekwondo competition when the jeep they were travelling in lost control and fell into a valley on May 29.
The accident came to light only on May 31, after which rescue teams recovered the bodies from the gorge. Police said the family had gone to Delhi on May 19, before proceeding to Himachal Pradesh to participate in the taekwondo championship held in Dalhousie from May 27 to 29. They had then planned to visit the Sach Pass area for trekking.
Relatives claimed that they last spoke to the family members on May 29, after which communication was lost. The family was expected to return to Bengaluru by May 31, but never arrived.
Following a post-mortem in Himachal Pradesh, the bodies were handed over to relatives and are being brought by air to Coimbatore and then taken by ambulance to Tirupur for final rites.