Himachal royal scion killed in road accident

SHIMLA/NOIDA - A descendant of the erstwhile Kullu royal family in Himachal Pradesh was killed in a road accident near Noida in Uttar Pradesh early Sunday, his family said.

“Abhishek Singh was killed in a road accident near Noida when the car he was driving collided with a truck parked on the side of the road at around 3.30 a.m.,” Maheshwar Singh, Abhishek’s uncle, said in Shimla.

Police in Noida said Abhishek was coming in his Hyundai Accent car from the Kalindi Kunj area of Delhi and was heading towards Noida.

“Apparently, Abhishek intended to drive up the Mahamaya Flyover. But, just ahead of the flyover near Sector-40, a truck loaded with steel was parked on the roadside. Unable to notice the truck, he could not control the car and crashed into the truck,” a police officer in Noida said.

He was taken to Bhardwaj Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. “His family had been immediately informed. Some of his relatives and family members arrived at the Bhardwaj Hospital and took the body away,” an officer at the Sector 39 police station said.

Maheshwar Singh said Abhishek, 27, was working with the Steel Authority of India in New Delhi for the past few years.

“His parents, who were in Bhopal to attend some family functions, reached Delhi as the news about his accident came. Abhishek will be cremated in Kullu tomorrow (Monday),” he said.

Abhishek was the eldest son of Karan Singh, a former education minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Himachal Pradesh (1998-2003), who joined the Congress during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Karan Singh, who is related to Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, is the younger brother of Maheshwar Singh, a three-time BJP MP from Mandi constituency in Himachal Pradesh.