Thiruvananthapuram/Delhi: Tragedy struck two IT professionals and their families comprising eight including kids when they died in a freak accident while returning from Nepal after a get-together.
According to reports reaching here, Praveen Krishnan Nair, Saranya Sasi, Sreebhadra Praveen, Aarcha Praveen, Abhinav Saranya Nair, Ranjith Kumar Adatholath Punathil, Indu Lakshmi Peethambaran Ragalatha and Vyshnav Ranjith fell unconscious due to a possible gas leak in their resort room where they had checked into on their way back from their trip to Pokhara, a popular mountainous destination.
Ranjit’s elder son Madhav who was sleeping in another room had a lucky escape.
There was shock and disbelief in their hometown in Thiruvananthapuram over the incident. Family members said Prabin Kumar and Ranjit Kumar were classmates while studying in engineering college. The Nepal tour was arranged after a reunion in Delhi.
But it was strange that the two friends had booked four rooms but preferred to cramp themselves up in one small room. The resort manager had no answer to this. Sources say one possibility was that it was very cold and so they preferred to be together to stay warm.
They had checked into Everest Panorama Resort in Daman in Makawanpur district on Monday night on their return to Kerala.
Once they checked in, they shut all the windows and doors and turned on a gas heater to keep themselves warm. Police suspect, they might have passed out due to lack of ventilation.
As the hotel staff found no answer from the couples, they summoned the police. All of them were airlifted to HAMS hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival, PTI quoted Sushil Singh Rathaur, Superintendent of Police, Makawanpur, said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Tuesday expressed “deep grief” over the death of the tourists from Kerala. The bodies are expected to be brought to the state Wednesday after post-mortem, a statement from CM’s office said..
In a tweet, the chief minister’s office said that the department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) has taken steps to expedite the repatriation of the tourists’ mortal remains.
Vijayan also wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishanakar seeking his intervention for providing all possible assistance to the kin of the victims.
Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan too said Indian Embassy officials in Kathmandu were at work to bring the bodies back to India as soon as possible. “We are in regular touch with the Indian embassy in Kathmandu”, he said.