Lucknow billboard collapse: Two lives cut short; family still in disbelief

LUCKNOW Wails of an elderly mother, who lost her daughter and granddaughter in a day, filled the air with a heavy sombreness as the bodies of the two billboard collapse victims were brought to their home in Indira Nagar. Still in disbelief, Madhu Jaggi asked the mourners to not refer to her daughter Priti Jaggi (43) and granddaughter Angel (14) as bodies. “Don’t call them bodies, they are my daughters,” she said.

In extreme pain, the elderly mother bid farewell to her daughters with an affectionate rhyme -- “uth ja meri pyari gudiya, khel mere saath (get up my sweet doll, play with me)” -- before the two bodies were taken for cremation to Baikunthdham on Tuesday evening.

Earlier, on Monday, the mother-daughter duo was killed as a billboard collapsed on their SUV outside Ekana Sportz City. Victims Priti Jaggi and her daughter Angel used to live with the former’s mother, Madhu Jaggi, and her brother Mohit Jaggi in their Indira Nagar home. Priti was married to one Deepak Luthra in 2008 but the couple got divorced around eight years ago. Since then, Priti had been living in her parental home. She was raising her daughter Angel while working as a teacher in a private institute. She also worked online for a software firm.

“After the death of Priti’s father, Dayanand Jaggi, in 2011, she became the support system of her widow mother and her unmarried brother. Both the victims were cheerful, warm, and talkative. They kept the home lively,” said one of the family’s relatives, wishing anonymity.

The mother-daughter duo had gone for a ride on the fateful Monday. The two had kept a fast. In fact, it was the first Monday fasting for 14-year-old Angel, who threw a tantrum and prompted her mother to take her on a drive. “To pacify her daughter, Priti took her on a car ride. As the mother and daughter wanted to have a glass of juice, they stopped near the Ekana Stadium. It was then that the unfortunate incident took place. Their driver also sustained injuries in the accident,” said RK Saxena, Priti’s maternal uncle.

He added that the hoarding first creaked and then fell on the car’s roof. Due to the impact, the car got shattered and the back doors of the car pierced into Priti first. She died on the spot. “After the collapse, Angel was still alive and was trying to rescue herself but the rods of the billboard and the broken roofs of the smashed SUV pricked into her body as well,” said Saxena based on the information provided by the police and the driver of the car, who is undergoing treatment at a government hospital.

‘14-yr-old was a bright, affable student’

Angel, 14, was on the precipice of exploring the best years of her life when she met with an accident on Monday evening. She was a class 8th student at Gurukul Academy. According to the family and neighbours, the teen was a bright and cheerful student. “She was good in studies,” said Saxena.

“The girl was also an avid dog lover. She would often come to our home sometime late at night. When I asked if you took your mother’s permission, she would simply say yes. She was a lovely child with a smile on her face. Like myself, they too were the devotees of Lord Shiva. Hopefully, both of them are Shiva’s abode now,” said a neighbour, who did not wish to be named.