Sitting with two constables and one assistant sub-inspector in the premises of the Babu Jag Jivan Ram hospital’s mortuary who were verifying the details of the victims of Alipur accident, Sujit Pandey was in a state of shock. “Hours before I was informed about the accident, we all were together,” he said.
A close friend of all six victims of Alipur accident, Sujit was also a partner in the scrap business which they were running for the past ten years. He recalls how all of them had assembled at one of their friend’s place in Karawal Nagar.
“Deepak and Nishant had dropped their wives to the railway station. It was a typical get-together. However, by 9.30 pm, everyone went back to their respective homes. Then at around 11.30 pm, I got a call that everyone is planning to go to Lal bagh near Loni in Uttar Pradesh as we had to take a payment. However, I did not go with them,” said Pandey.
Neighbours and distant relatives assembled at the mortuary and said that Amit and Vikas were natives of Akbarpur. While Ansar Ahmed and Deepak Yadav were natives of Azamgarh, Vivek Tiwary was from Basti while Nishant was from Delhi. “Vivek was the youngest of them all. He was a second year BA student in a district university in Uttar Pradesh. He was taking his final year exams and one of his last papers was due, said Anurodh Shukla, Vivek’s cousin.