INJURED MALAYSIAN PILIGRIM DIES IN DELHI

By P. Vijian

NEW DELHI, April 13 (Bernama) -- One of nine Malaysian tourists injured in
a road accident, enroute to the holy city of Haridwar last Friday, died at the
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) late Sunday night.

Rukumani Karuppiah, 65, who suffered multiple head and body injuries,
compounded by a blood clot in the brain, died without regaining conscious about
11.30 (local time).

She was from Taman Selatan in Klang, Selangor

"Doctors said she died of a heart attack due to the trauma. She had blood
clot in the brain and spinal injury but they were not so serious.

"There were some body movements but she had been unconscious since the
accident," her son, Suresh Kumar, who arrived in Delhi last Saturday, told
Bernama Monday.

Rukumani was part of a group of 14 Malaysians heading to Haridwar when their
mini-van collided with a truck on Delhi-Haridwar national highway, near
Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, a northern state in India.

In the accident about 2am, three Indians in the mini-van -- driver, his
assistant and a tourist guide -- died on the spot.

The Malaysian High Commission is making arrangements to send Rukumani's
body to Malaysia tonight.

Three other injured Malaysians -- Eankappah Ganggammah, Morgan Perumal and
P. Thanaletchumi -- are still undergoing treatment at AIIMS.

The group was on an eight-day pilgrimage to Jaipur and Kathmandu in Nepal,
but made a last-minute switch to visit Haridwar.

This is a second road accident tragedy in India involving Rukumani's family.

In 1990, she lost a son, a final-year medical student, who died in a car
accident in Manglore, south India.

-- BERNAMA