Two on minister's security duty die

Get crushed under wheels of SUV after they fall out of their vehicle

Two Punjab police personnel, who were part of the security detail of state education minister Sikander Singh Maluka, were on Thursday killed in a freak mishap after being thrown off the pilot car of his convoy.

The minister, who was in another car trailing the escort vehicle, escaped unhurt in the mishap which occurred on the Chandigarh-Delhi national highway.

The dead have been identified as Harbans and Gurmeet Singh, hailing from Bathinda and Mansa, respectively.

According to sources, the driver of the pilot car was forced to suddenly hit the brakes after noticing severed power cables lying on the road at Kundli in Haryana’s Sonepat in the morning on Thursday. The wires had snapped in the heavy rain.

“The two policemen, sitting in the back of the vehicle, fell off when the brakes were applied. As there was no divider on that stretch, the duo rolled on to the adjacent lane and got crushed under the wheels of an SUV coming from the opposite direction,” Maluka said.

The minister was on his way to Delhi from Chandigarh to attend a meeting in the national capital.

“It was raining heavily and visibility was low,” Maluka said, adding that it was an “unfortunate incident”.

It had been pouring on Thursday since morning at most places across Haryana, Punjab and the Union territory of Chandigarh.