The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday took suo motu cognizance of the April 10 Trikut ropeway tragedy in Deoghar in which at least four persons died.

 Passing the order, the Bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad ordered an inquiry into the accident. The bench sought a report from the Jharkhand government and posted the matter for hearing on April 26. The court took cognizance of the mishap on the basis of newspaper reports.

“It is being widely circulated in the various newspapers since yesterday regarding the mishap which has taken place at Trikut Hills (Deoghar) wherein several persons, who were riding the ropeway, got stranded and remained unattended due to the said disaster in which the roller of the ropeway either broke or the cables came out of the pulley causing the death of several persons and several persons faced the agony due to this incident,” the court observed.

Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan informed the court that the rescue operation was undertaken by the Indian Air Force, ITBP, and NDRF and people were saved. The court further observed that some media reports have stated that “some technical institutions had warned about the technical flaws in the planning of this ropeway but it was not given any attention by the concerned and N.O.C. was granted by the concerned Department of the State for running the ropeway. This is a very serious matter which requires thorough investigation and inquiry.”

The advocate general informed the court that a high-level inquiry has been ordered by the government.

“However, let an affidavit to that extent be filed on behalf of the State both covering the reasons for this mishap as well as the rescue operation, and the inquiry to be conducted.

The rescue operation concluded on Tuesday evening when the rest of the persons trapped in cable cars were rescued through vertical landing. But one Shobha Devi, unfortunately, died as her tither was hooked to a cable car. She fell from a height and died on the spot.

As the court has taken cognizance, two PIL were filed in 2010 and 2011 where petitioners demanded a CBI inquiry into the several projects of the tourism department. In 2010, Sanjay Tiwari filed a petition. The court advised the petitioner to lodge an FIR at the concerned police station. In 2011, Babloo Kumar filed a PIL which is still pending before the court.