Patna woman among Kumbh stampede victims

Patna: Like crores of devotees, Siya Devi (62) of a Maner village in Patna district's , had embarked on a pilgrimage to Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, where she had hoped to take a holy dip in the ‘sangam' (confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers) on Mauni Amavasya (new moon day) on Wednesday and return with blessings for her family.
As fate would have it, her mortal remains came back in an ambulance to her village Gauraiyasthan Jivrakhan Tola on Thursday afternoon. She was among those who lost their life in a stampede just before the auspicious ‘Amrit Snan'.
She, accompanied by her daughter-in-law Rinku Devi and several other village women, had travelled to Prayagraj by train on Monday. Not only she and Rinku got separated from their group in the chaos, but the overwhelming crowd proved fatal for the elderly woman, who succumbed to her injuries incurred in the stampede on the spot. Her daughter-in-law, who was present during the incident, contacted the family to inform them of the tragic incident.
A pall of gloom descended in the village upon the arrival of her body. The deceased is survived by four sons, four daughters and husband Rajendra Rai.
All the men of the family work outside Bihar as daily wage labourers. Upon receiving the news, all returned to their village and performed the last rites on the banks of the Ganga river in the village around 3pm.
Ward member Binod Kumar, whose mother Janki Devi was among the group, said that the other women in the group were safe. "My mother sustained some injuries during the stampede and today (Thursday), we were able to locate her. She was in Mughalsarai and we brought her home. She is admitted to a private hospital in Patna," he told this newspaper.