A road accident that involved multiple automobiles in Texas was fatal to four people of Indian origin, out of whom one was a woman, as their SUV caught fire. The attack happened on 30th August, and the bodies of the victims were so burnt that identification became difficult, and the police had to use DNA samples.
The group had met on a carpooling application, and this was their journey to Bentonville, Arkansas, before the crash. According to the accounts, at least five cars were involved in the accident, which began after a speeding truck rammed their SUV. And while four of the people perished on the scene, three others sustained injuries from the attack.
They have been named Aryan Raghunath Orampati and his friend Farooq Shaik from Hyderabad, Lokesh Palacharla from East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, and Dharshini Vasudevan from Tamil Nadu. Orampati and Shaik were returning from a family visit to a relative in Dallas, Palacharla was going to join his wife, and Vasudevan, a master’s degree holder at the University of Texas, had traveled to visit her uncle.
Shaik’s father, Mastan Vali, said his son has been in the U.S. for the last three years and has already completed his M.S. His daughter is also in the U.S., and she is coordinating with the relevant authorities to repatriate the remains.
On 31st August, in a last tweet, Dharshini’s father contacted the Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to help him find his daughter because he was worried as he lost contact with his daughter for almost 12 hours. He described her traveling schedule from Frisco to Bentonville, where the family felt worried during this time and considered it to be dreadful.
