The Jharkhand High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the Deoghar ropeway incident.
A video from moments before the tragic ropeway accident in Jharkhand's Deoghar that claimed 5 lives has surfaced after rescue operations were completed by the Indian Air Force. Shot from the mobile phone camera of one of the people whose cable car collided with another, the video clip shows a normal view with conversations in the background until suddenly an oncoming red cable car collides and there's panicked commotion. The phone then appears to have fallen off and a man can be heard crying in pain.
Two people died during the rescue operations, both fell after slipping during the rescue. Three others had died when the cable cars collided presumably due to a technical glitch.
All the tourists who remained trapped mid-air in three cable cars for about 40 hours, were rescued on Tuesday in a risky operation involving two Air Force helicopters and dozens of officials.
Over 50 people were stranded mid-air for 48 hours after the accident. A complex rescue operation led by the Indian Air Force, Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) took more than 40 hours.
Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri said the rescue operations to rescue were carried out by the combined teams of the Indian Air Force, Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
"Three people have died in the mishap, including two tourists who fell from helicopters on Monday and Tuesday during rescue attempts, while 12 injured people are undergoing treatment at hospitals," officials said.
The Jharkhand High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the Deoghar ropeway incident and has ordered an inquiry into the matter. The court will hear the matter on April 26.
The Trikut ropeway, according to the Jharkhand tourism department, is India's highest vertical ropeway. It is around 766-metre long.