By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 10 Jan: As the Uttarakhand Forest Department and the state police started separate probes to find reasons behind the tragic Chilla accident in which four persons, including two forest officials, lost their lives and a woman warden went missing, the driver said he was “forced to drive the electric vehicle (EV) at high speed”.
An FIR was lodged against Bengaluru based manufacturer of the EV, Pravaig Dynamics, and Aska (the liaisoners) on Wednesday.
The FIR was lodged at the Laxman Jhula police station against the two companies under section 279/338/304A of the IPC. The interceptor vehicle was manufactured by Pravaig Dynamics.
Chief Wildlife Warden Sameer Sinha said he would look into the administrative part of the probe only. The state police on the other hand will investigate the matter as per the law.
Two forest rangers died and a woman warden, Aloki Devi, went missing after their trial Electric Vehicle (EV) met with an accident in Uttarakhand’s Rajaji Tiger Reserve on Monday.
Meanwhile, the EV start-up, Pravaig Dynamics, has said it is working with the investigating agencies to make more details available. The Bengaluru-based company, in a press statement, said the EV driver Ashbin Biju, who survived the accident, has stated that forest officials “forced him to overload and speed up” during the trial of the all-terrain EV. Biju, a Mechanical Engineer, who was driving the vehicle, an employee of Pravaig, claimed he was neither inebriated nor tired.
The first test drive, approved by the Forest Department of Uttarakhand, happened on Monday morning without any incident but in the second round of demonstration in the afternoon, forest officials forced him to take 9 personnel (a total of 10 including the driver) against the seating capacity of eight (including driver), according to his statement.
“The ranger standing at the rear of the vehicle ordered me to go to the Chilla Dam road and asked me to go to other off-road obstacles as part of the demonstration,” he said, adding they asked him to “accelerate” despite “my repeated requests to not go outside the planned range”. The driver and the co-passenger in the front, who wore their seat belts, survived the accident, while the rangers and others who were standing in the rear of the vehicle were thrown off and either died or were seriously injured.
Uttarakhand Forest Minister Subodh Uniyal said he had also taken the trial of the EV.
Meanwhile, Aska informed Garhwal Post that it was only playing a liaisoning role between the forest department and Pravaig. The EV was manufactured and designed by Pravaig and it has nothing to do with the technical specifications of the vehicle, nor is it responsible for the alleged malfunction. It has expressed condolences to the bereaved families.
