The Vice Chancellor of a Nagpur-based government university and his wife were killed in a road accident in Uttar Pradesh's Mau district on Saturday morning. The couple died after their car collided with a trailer truck parked on the road near Basrathpur in Dohrighat police station area of Mau.
Professor Hareram Tripathi (58), Vice Chancellor of Kavikulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, and his wife Badami Devi (56), died on the spot. Both of them were residents of Mirganj in Gopalganj district of Bihar.
Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anoop Kumar told news agency PTI that the accident took place in Kusma village on Gorakhpur-Varanasi highway in Dohrighat police station area, when the couple was going from Varanasi to their village in the Kushinagar district.
The car driver, Vaibhav Mishra (35), sustained serious injuries in the road mishap. He old the police that professor Tripathi started driving the car after he felt sleepy. "As the car reached near Basharathpur, in Doharighat area of Mau, the tyre got punctured and the car rammed into the trailer,” Hindustan Times quoted him as saying.
ASP Kumar said that the driver has been sent to the hospital for treatment. The bodies were also sent for postmortem.
Tripathi was earlier the Vice Chancellor of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi. Sampurnanand Sanskrit University Vice Chancellor Bihari Lal Sharma Ji expressed condolences on Tripathi's sudden demise.
“I am deeply saddened to hear the news of the sudden demise of prof. Hareram Tripathi Ji, former vice chancellor of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University and current vice chancellor of Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, Ramtek, and his wife Badami Devi in a road accident. I pray to Baba Vishwanath Ji for the peace of their souls," he was quoted as saying by HT.