A 25-year-old journalist was killed in Bhopal on Sunday after she fell from a bike taxi at Bhadbhada intersection and was run over by a dumper, police said. The crash took place around 8am within the limits of Kamla Nagar police station.
The victim was identified as Sapna Kumari, a native of Bihar who worked with a private news channel in Bhopal, station in-charge Nirupa Pandey said. According to the police account, Kumari was travelling to her office on a bike taxi when another motorcycle rider suddenly cut in front of it.
The manoeuvre caused the bike taxi driver to lose balance, police said. Kumari was thrown onto the road, where a dumper approaching from behind ran over her head. She died at the scene, according to the police officer.
Both the motorcycle riders and the dumper driver fled after the crash, Pandey said. The circumstances have left police examining the movements of multiple road users involved in the incident, including the bike taxi, the motorcycle that allegedly cut in and the dumper.
Police are reviewing CCTV footage from the area to identify those involved, the station in-charge said. The account of the crash and the identities of the other road users remain part of the police investigation.
The incident highlights the risks faced by two-wheeler passengers in mixed urban traffic, where motorcycles, app-based bike taxis and heavy commercial vehicles share the same road space. In this case, police said the fatal sequence began when another motorcycle rider moved into the path of the bike taxi, followed by the passenger’s fall and the dumper’s approach from behind.
Kumari’s body was handed over to her family after a post-mortem examination, police said. The next formal steps will depend on the identification of the riders and dumper driver through CCTV footage and the investigation into the crash.
