4 Indian nationals burned alive in multi-vehicle accident in Texas

Indian Consul General in Houston DC, Manjunath, confirmed the identities and said that the Consulate General of India (CGI) is in touch with the families and community organizations and is providing them full support at this tragic moment.

According to witnesses and preliminary reports, traffic on the highway had come to a standstill. An SUV was among the vehicles stuck in traffic on Friday afternoon.

A truck traveling at high speed was unable to reduce its speed and crashed into the rear of the SUV. The force of the impact was so great that the SUV caught fire and the four occupants inside were trapped, resulting in their deaths.

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It took days before the victims could be officially identified because the bodies were charred beyond recognition.

Several other people sustained non-life-threatening injuries, but the exact number is unclear. The victims were identified as Aryan Raghunath Orampatti of Kukatpally suburb in Hyderabad, his friend Farooq Sheikh, Lokesh Palacharla, another Telugu student, and Darshini Vasudev of Tamil Nadu. Orampatti and Sheikh were returning from visiting a cousin in Dallas, while Palacharla was heading to Bentonville to reunite with his wife. Darshini Vasudev, a postgraduate student at the University of Texas, was on her way to visit her uncle in Arkansas.

The identification of the victims was delayed due to the long weekend and the need to take DNA fingerprints from bone remains to confirm their identities.

“Darshini's uncle Ramanujam lives in Bentonville, Arkansas. She wanted to visit him. Darshini had just completed her master's degree and started her job in Frisco, Dallas,” said Manjunath.

“The other two, Umar Farooq Sheikh and Aryan Raghunath Orampatti, recently graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas. Sheikh will complete his master's degree in business analytics in spring 2023 and Orampatti will complete his master's degree in finance, which he expects to complete in spring 2024. Lokesh, who was driving the vehicle, was also employed,” Manjunath added.

Meanwhile, a friend of Aryan's father in Hyderabad said on Wednesday that four people, including Aryan and his friend Farooq, boarded the vehicle through a ride-sharing app.

After Aryan learned about the accident on Saturday from a relative living in the US, his parents had already left for the US, he told PTI.

Aryan had left for the US to pursue his master's degree after completing his engineering degree and his parents attended his graduation ceremony in May, he said, adding that Aryan plans to work in the US for two years and then return to India.

Farooq's father Mastan Vali, who lives in Hyderabad, told PTI that he was informed on Saturday that a speeding truck had rammed the vehicle carrying his son and three other Indians, including Aryan, from behind.

“Some of Farooq's friends had informed my daughter, who lives in the US, about the accident. She informed me about it on Saturday. My daughter is in touch with the authorities there,” Mastan Vali said, adding that they plan to bring Farooq's remains to Hyderabad.

From here, Farooq left for the United States in August 2021 and is now working after completing his master's degree there, his father said.