Sahib Singh killed in car crash

JAIPUR/DELHI: Former Delhi CM and Union labour minister Sahib Singh Verma was killed in a freak highway accident on Saturday while on his way back to the capital from Jaipur. He was 64.

The bearded Jat leader, who became CM after M L Khurana stepped down following the Jain hawala scandal, was killed almost instantaneously when a truck careened across from the opposite carriageway and crashed into the Tata Safari SUV he was in.

The accident occurred at Shahjahanpur in Alwar district, about 160 km from Delhi on National Highway 8. Two others — his driver Davesh Kumar and a friend Naresh Agarwal — also died on the spot. Verma’s personal guard Jagir Singh was seriously injured and is admitted in a Jaipur hospital.

Verma, who rose from librarian in Delhi’s Bhagat Singh College to CM for more than year from 1996, had gone to Neem Ka Thana in Sikar district, Rajasthan, to address a party rally. He had halted at Behror, midway between Jaipur and Delhi, for an hour.

Verma also served as labour minister in the NDA government while serving as MP from Outer Delhi. He is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.

Eyewitnesses said the truck which crashed into Verma’s Tata Safari tried to avoid hitting a cyclist and went out of control, leaping across the wide median to the opposite carriageway and hitting the SUV head on. The Safari was instantly converted into a mangled heap of steel and the driver’s cabin of the truck ripped out of the cargo body as a result of the impact.