Sixty-year-old Tanveer Ahmad was woken up from sleep by a phone call Wednesday morning. A voice did not recognise said six of his family members, including his three children, met with an accident, that their car caught fire with people still inside.
He feared the worst but maybe it was not true. Tanveer called his brother and wife in Budaun to verify if they really had left for Delhi that morning.
"It was the worst phone call of my life," Ahmad told PTI over a call.
A car carrying six members of his family overturned and caught fire near the Chandauk crossing on the Jahangirabad-Bulandshahr road around 5.50 am.
Police said the driver likely dozed off in the morning hours-like many early morning accidents-the car hit a culvert and overturned, eventually catching fire.
Five people were charred to death-his son Tanveez Ahmad (26), his daughter-in-law Nida (21), his daughter Momina (24), his son-in-law Zuber Ali (30), and his two-year-old grandson Zainul.
Tanveer's daughter, 15-year-old Gulnaz, survived but suffered critical injuries.
It was Gulnaz who gave Tanveer's phone number to the man who called him in the morning to inform him about the accident.
"My family was returning to Delhi after attending a wedding in Badaun. The accident happened early in the morning. Fifteen-year-old Gulnaz survived and was rescued by someone," he said.
The family was originally from Chamanpura village in Badaun but had been residing in the Hauz Rani area of south Delhi's Malviya Nagar. Tanveez was an AC mechanic and Zuber was a house painter, their father said.
Tanveer, who runs a furniture business in Hauz Rani, said he received the distressing call around 6 am.
"The caller informed me about the condition of my son's car and asked me to reach the site immediately. Gulnaz couldn't speak at the time but somehow managed to recall my number," he said.
Tanveer also attended the wedding in Badaun but returned to Delhi on Tuesday evening. Tanveez and Zuber chose to leave early Wednesday morning to avoid Delhi's traffic.
"That decision proved fatal. The driver, Tanveez or Zuber may have dozed off," he said.
The distraught father added that several family members had advised them not to travel so early in the morning.
"My wife and brother told them to wait until daylight, but they were in a hurry," Ahmad told PTI.
Ahmad said he immediately called his brother in Badaun and asked him to rush to the accident site.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
