Looking for Parvati Devi: Two weeks after Yamuna expressway crash, a husband searches for missing wife

Govind Kumar has been wracked with anxiety.

Kumar said his wife was heading to Noida on a bus with their two children, Prachi (12) and Sagar (8), when the accident occurred due to dense fog around 4 am.

In a matter of minutes, 13 vehicles, including eight buses, erupted into flames. Twenty people were killed, several of them charred beyond recognition.

While the children managed to escape, pushed out by Devi, the family has no idea what happened to her.

The case has been complicated by the fact that all bodies have been identified — Devi was not among them.

Her eldest son, Aakash (22), who works as a labourer in Noida, recounted the harrowing ordeal: “My mother, along with my younger brother and sister, were coming to visit me when the accident occurred… She was injured… Thick smoke had filled the bus, making it hard to breathe. She managed to get Sagar out first, and then Prachi escaped.”

Twenty people were killed in the 18-vehicle pile-up on the Yamuna Expressway. (PTI)

He said his sister was screaming, pleading with several people to help rescue their mother when the bus suddenly caught fire following an explosion.

Govind and Aakash have now been criss-crossing police stations and administrative offices in Mathura, trying to convince officials that Devi was among the passengers on the ill-fated bus.

Aakash said police told the family that the matter is under investigation but have shared no concrete updates. “They called us four times and collected blood samples, hair strands, and nail clippings from Prachi and me for DNA testing. We don’t know the results of these tests,” he claimed.

“Do haftey key baad bhi hum log latkey huey hai… Gaon waley baatey bana rahey hai. Yeh sab se bachney key liye, sab log Noida mai mere pass reh rahey hai. (It’s been two weeks and we have been left hanging… People in the village are spreading rumors. To avoid any kind of public humiliation, my entire family has left the village and is now staying with me in Noida),” he added.

Police said they are verifying if Devi was travelling on the bus; a police officer was also sent to Hamirpur to check records and gather additional information.

Aakash said two days ago, a sub-inspector visited his village and recorded statements of local residents. “The officer also met my cousin, Jaipal, who had accompanied my mother and siblings to help them board the bus. He even recorded the statement of the rickshaw puller who dropped them…,” he said.

A firefighter douses a charred bus after a fog-hit pile-up involving buses and cars sparked fires on the Yamuna Expressway. PTI

When contacted, Additional Superintendent of Police, Mathura (Rural), Suresh Chandra Rawat, said police have initiated an inquiry. “We are trying to ascertain whether she [Devi] was in the vehicle at the time the accident occurred. We are also examining CCTV footage.”

He said police are analysing call detail records and recording statements of passengers who were travelling on the bus and managed to escape. Rawat added that when the police reached the accident site, no one informed them that a woman had managed to get her children out but remained trapped inside the bus.

Mathura District Magistrate, Chandra Prakash Singh, said 20 people had lost their lives in the incident. He added that all the bodies recovered from the accident site have been identified, and in 15 cases, the identities were confirmed through DNA testing.

DM Singh further said one claimant is yet to take custody of the body that has been identified. He also said two families have approached the administration claiming their family members had died in the accident, but their bodies have not been traced so far. “We are examining their claims and conducting an inquiry into these allegations,” Singh said.

For the family, there is no closure.

Aakash said the administration’s decision to conduct an inquiry into his statement — that his mother was travelling in the bus and had died in the accident — made him feel as if officials suspected them of making a false claim just to seek compensation.

The government had announced a compensation of Rs 3 lakh for the next of kin of each deceased person.

“Adhikar jo aspatal aaye they boley they 72 ghantey mai sabki pahchaan ho jayegi. Aur ab do hafta ho gaya mera kuch nahi hua (A day after the accident, senior officials from the district administration and police had assured the families that the identities of missing persons would be established within 72 hours. Two weeks have now passed and there is still no resolution),” added Aakash.