Gujarat: One killed, 11 injured as speeding Scorpio hits Ambaji-bound group in Sabarkantha

The victims were walking as part of a padyatra to the shrine for the annual Bhadarvi Poonam fair, which attracts lakhs of devotees from across Gujarat.

One person was killed and 11 others injured after a speeding Scorpio hit a group of people near Dolgarh Patiya on the Himmatnagar-Idar highway late on Monday evening, police said.

The deceased, identified as Mohanbhai, a man in his 30s from Talod taluka, was a volunteer at a seva camp set up for Ambaji pilgrims, Sabarkantha superintendent of police (SP) Parthrajsinh Gohil said.

Seven to eight of the injured were pilgrims walking towards Ambaji as part of a padyatra for the annual Bhadarvi Poonam fair, while the others were volunteers at the seva camp and local residents of Talod taluka, according to Gohil. Such camps are set up along the pilgrimage route to provide food, water, medical assistance and other services to devotees.

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Gohil said the driver did not stop at a police barricade on the highway despite signals from a Gujarat Rakshak Dal (GRD) jawan to stop, and hit the group.

The driver fled the scene after the crash, sparking anger among nearby locals and fellow pilgrims, who set the vehicle on fire.

Police said the driver was later tracked down and detained. The driver was identified as Bharat Patel, a resident of Himmatpura village near the accident site. One side of the highway had been closed for the movement of pilgrims. Since Patel's village is on that side of the highway, he was using the road to reach his village when the accident occurred, Gohil said.

Police also collected Patel's blood samples after suspecting that he may have been driving under the influence of alcohol, Gohil said.

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Senior officials, including the SP and local police personnel, rushed to the spot along with fire tenders.

The injured were rushed to the Civil Hospital in Himmatnagar.

Dr KB Parmar, medical officer at the hospital, said 12 people were brought to the hospital. One injured person was in serious condition and was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Two others were taken to private hospitals, while seven to eight patients underwent CT scans, sonography and X-rays.

The injured were from Nana Chekhla, Danotra and Kanji Pani in Panchmahal district, and Ukedina Muvada in Kheda district.

He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More