A Gwalior truck crash at the Sheetla Mata Temple fair on Chinor Road killed 15 devotees and injured 26 others, including two police personnel, after a heavy vehicle entered a crowded restricted stretch around 1.30am on Sunday. Two Home Guard personnel posted at the entry point were among those killed, while several injured people remained in critical condition.
The accident occurred during Saptami of the nine-day Sharadiya Navratri festival, when about one lakh people were reportedly gathered near the shrine. The truck hit devotees walking along the roadside before crashing into the temple’s entrance gate. Part of the temple wall collapsed, trapping people beneath the debris. Local residents, police personnel and devotees helped pull victims from the wreckage.
The route to the temple had restrictions on all vehicles, including bicycles, during the festival. Families and residents questioned how heavy trucks reached the restricted stretch after passing barricades placed some distance from the shrine. Authorities had not explained the entry of the vehicles at the time of the report, and the precise sequence remained disputed.
Officials said two overloaded trucks, travelling towards Punjab, had been directed towards the temple road after their drivers, unfamiliar with the route and using GPS-based navigation, approached the rear of the shrine from Chinor. One account said the trucks were parked on a steep road and that one rolled downhill after its brakes failed. Another account suggested that one truck broke through the barricades before entering the crowd. Police and officials were examining the circumstances.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav removed Jhansi Road city superintendent of police Ravi Bhadauria and suspended eight other police personnel for alleged negligence. The suspended personnel include Jhansi Road police station house officer Shakti Singh Yadav, Antri SHO Gitesh Sharma, Jhansi Road Traffic SHO Abhishek Raghuvanshi, Traffic Inspector Raghavendra Jadon, Head Constable Sushil Dwivedi and constables Kishan Khanna, Anil Jaitpuria and Pawan Sengar.
Yadav said the safety of devotees was paramount, negligence in the line of duty would not be tolerated and accountability would be fixed. He said a detailed inquiry would be conducted and strict action taken against those found responsible. Police arrested truck owner Mohit Singh and driver Dilbag Singh in Dholpur. Police said the two men had jumped out of the truck and fled after the accident, and were being questioned.
The injured were taken to the trauma centre at Jaya Arogya Hospital and the 1,000-bed hospital in Gwalior. Some seriously injured victims were transported in a goods vehicle rather than wait for ambulances. Ambulances continued carrying the dead and injured until around 4am, while senior administrative and police officials reviewed treatment arrangements.
Rescue operations were complicated by the overturned truck and debris from the collapsed wall. A crane was used to lift the vehicle and reach people trapped beneath it. The first hydra machine brought to the site developed a technical fault, leading officials to seek a second machine from the agency constructing a nearby elevated road. The report filed during the rescue operation said the second machine had not yet arrived at that point.
Residents and devotees blocked the road, demanding strict action against reckless driving and a complete ban on heavy vehicles in the area. Tension also emerged outside the post-mortem facility as relatives gathered to identify the dead. Additional police personnel were deployed after relatives demanded answers from Senior Superintendent of Police Dharmveer Singh about how the trucks entered the restricted area.
The families of those killed will receive Rs 4 lakh each, while seriously injured people will receive Rs 2 lakh each and other injured people Rs 50,000 each, according to the Chief Minister. The state government said all injured victims would receive free treatment. The affected families are from Gwalior, Shivpuri and Sheopur. President Droupadi Murmu expressed condolences, while Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia described the incident as extremely painful.
The temple, located in Sataun village, draws large crowds from Gwalior city, Dabra, Chinor, Bhitarwar and surrounding villages during Sharadiya Navratri. The next steps are the detailed inquiry into the vehicle movement, crowd-control arrangements and alleged negligence, along with the police investigation into the driver and owner.
