Adelaide family killed in car crash in India

All five members of an Indian family from Adelaide have been killed in a car crash in India on Sunday, on their way to the Taj Mahal. The restaurant owners, Rupendar and Anamika Dutta, were vacationing in India with family members.

The SUV in which the family was travelling reportedly hit the safety barrier after a tyre burst and the vehicle overturned, landing in the way of the traffic. Anamika, 45, her two daughters, 12-year-old Nikita and 15-year-old Vipasha and her sister, Sonia, 25, died on the spot. Her 20-year-old son Tirvijai died sometime after he was taken to the hospital.

"The impact of the collision was so great that bodies were found lying in pools of blood nearly five to seven metres away from the mangled car," the Times of India quoted a local police official, Narendar Singh, as saying.

Anamika’s husband Rupendar and her father, NK Paliwal, who have survived the crash, are being treated at the hospital.

The Urban India restaurant on Henley Beach Road, Adelaide, was owned by Rupendar, who hails from New Delhi, India. Though the restaurant remained open on Tuesday, its chef, Manpreet Singh said that he was unable to get over the shock.

“The family was very nice," the ABC quoted him as saying. "It's nothing like business, we all work as a family here and they were really very good people. We're just doing our responsibility, opening the restaurant, and we want everybody to pray for him now, for his good health."

Robbie Benipal, a friend of the Dutta family, said that the family often provided work to new Indian migrants at their restaurant. Another family friend of the Dutta’s, Anand Bhatia, said that the family was due to return to Adelaide this weekend. He said that he called the hospital where Rupendar was first admitted but he was taken to the Fortis Hospital in Delhi afterwards. According to Bhatia, Rupendar suffered a critical spinal injury in the crash. The driver of the car was also reportedly taken to the hospital.