Baghpat expressway crash kills 12 Budaun pilgrims returning from Rajasthan

Twelve people from a single pilgrimage group were dead by Monday afternoon after their vehicle overturned on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway in Baghpat district. The group of 32 was returning to Budaun from Bagad Dham in Rajasthan. The crash happened around 12.30 a.m. on 7 September near the Baragaon toll, between Basi and Bada villages in the Khekra Kotwali area, about 15 kilometres from the district headquarters.

Early briefings disagreed on the vehicle type. Some police accounts described a canter that hit a divider. Others described a pickup struck by a canter or mini-truck. A later Hindi report said a pickup and a canter collided and the pickup then hit the divider and flipped. What is consistent across the briefings is the passenger count, the route, the hour, and the rising toll.

Six people were declared dead at Baghpat district hospital. Twenty-two injured people were brought there. Eighteen were referred to a medical college in Meerut. Six of those patients later died, taking the total to 12, SSP Suraj Kumar Rai said. District Magistrate Asmita Lal and the superintendent visited the hospital. Four police response vehicles and ambulances had reached the carriageway after a 112 call.

Named among the dead were Munni Devi, 55; Sugadpal, 40; Sadhu, 60; Rameshwar Yadav, 60, of Alhapur; Premsingh, 40; and seven-year-old Jitendra, son of Nainpal. Identification of the remaining victims was still under way. One survivor, Kunwarpal, said most passengers were asleep when the vehicle turned over.

Bagad Dham, also written Bagar or Bangar in some dispatches, is a pilgrimage site in Rajasthan that draws groups from western Uttar Pradesh. Night returns on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway are common because the road loops around Delhi and shortens the run from Rajasthan toward Budaun and Bareilly. The expressway is a controlled-access highway. A canter or pickup loaded with 32 people is not the vehicle the road was built for. Overloading of pilgrim transport after festival visits is a recurring cause of fatal crashes on UP expressways, and this one followed the same pattern: a village group, a hired goods vehicle, a late hour, a divider.

SP Rai's first public comment, issued when the toll was still four, already described several serious injuries. By late morning the count had moved through six and seven to 12 and, in one Hindi report, 13. Almanaque is using Rai's confirmed figure of 12 until the district issues a final list.

Eighteen patients in Meerut and three still in Baghpat were the living remainder of the 32 by mid-morning. Their condition will decide whether the toll moves again. Police have the divider, the wreck and the passenger list. The charge sheet will have to say whether speed, a second vehicle, sleep at the wheel, or the load itself put the group on its side.