Lalit Kumar Sethia, who was injured in the temple accident, is one of the lucky ones whose life was saved. He has a fracture in his hand and also suffered injuries in his leg, but he has been discharged from the hospital. Many of his acquaintances are among those who lost their lives in the accident, while some people are still hospitalized.
Talking to navbharattimes.com, Sethia told that a havan was organized in the temple on Ram Navami. He visits Beleshwar Mahadev Temple every day. On Friday too, he had gone with some of his acquaintances to attend the Havan. A crowd of thousands of people had gathered in the temple premises to offer sacrifices in Havan. About 40-50 people had gathered on the terrace of the stepwell.
There was an atmosphere of celebration all around. Some were lighting lamps and some people were singing hymns. Then suddenly the roof of the baori collapsed. Before Sethia could understand anything, he fell into a well 40-50 feet deep. Floors and stones were falling on them.
As soon as the roof collapsed, there was an uproar of save-save all around. The cries of children started coming. The people who fell in the well were not able to understand what to do. Two women died in front of Lalit. Seeing this, he also felt sure of his death. It seemed that there was no hope of survival now.
Lalit says he doesn’t know how he survived. Someone threw a rope into the well and they caught it. He tried to come up by resting his feet on the stone on the wall of the well. Meanwhile someone pulled the rope upwards and they came out. They didn’t know what happened after that. When his eyes opened, he was lying on the hospital bed. There was pain in the whole body. He could not even move his body. When he saw, he had plaster in his hands.
There was an atmosphere of chaos in the hospital as well. There were sounds of crying and moaning coming from all sides. One by one the dead bodies were being taken out. He was discharged from the hospital after a while. He breathed a sigh of relief after reaching home.
Lalit says that even now his soul trembles remembering the incident. He would not be able to forget this scene for the rest of his life. He is still worried about his friends who were present in the temple at that time. He has not been able to get any information about many of these till now.
Source: navbharattimes.indiatimes.com
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