The highway between Ajmer and Pushkar is not unknown to tragedy. But the crash that unfolded near Pushkar Ghati shortly after midnight on May 18 carried details that have proven difficult for the public to ignore. A black Fortuner, owned by a temple trust, smashed into three motorcycles. One man died. Four others required hospital care. The driver, a volunteer associated with the Khatu Shyam Mandir Seva Samiti, was later found to have been drinking. Inside the vehicle, investigators discovered multiple cartons and bottles of alcohol.
The man who lost his life was Ravi, a painter from Ajmer’s Dholabhata neighbourhood. He was riding with his brother-in-law, Jitendra, when the SUV struck them. Ravi’s father, Kishore Kumar, a retired railway employee, submitted the official complaint at the Pushkar police station. Ravi is survived by four sisters. The four injured individuals remain in recovery.
The driver, Digvijay Singh Chauhan, served as a sevadar — a volunteer role at the Khatu Shyam Temple, which draws thousands of pilgrims each year. Videos posted online after the crash showed him performing tasks associated with VIP接待 inside the temple premises. He is not a priest in the traditional sense, but that distinction has not softened public sentiment. For many, the sight of a temple-affiliated figure driving a trust-registered vehicle while intoxicated, leaving behind a fatal wreck, represents a kind of institutional betrayal.
What makes this case particularly revealing is what came before the crash. The Fortuner, according to police records, had nine outstanding challans for overspeeding before May 18. Each of those citations was a moment when enforcement could have intervened. A fine was paid. A notice served. A temporary suspension. None of those things happened. The vehicle remained on the road, accumulating risk.
Across Rajasthan, enforcement data shows a recurring pattern. Vehicles with multiple unresolved speeding violations are statistically more likely to end up in serious collisions, particularly those involving alcohol. The correlation is not mysterious. Repeated speeding reflects either driver impunity or weak oversight and often both. In the case of trust-owned vehicles, that oversight tends to be even thinner. Religious trusts operate fleets that occupy an ambiguous legal space: not quite private, not quite commercial, and rarely subject to the same enforcement pressure as individually owned cars. Challans pile up. No one pays. The vehicle keeps moving.
The Fortuner’s ownership by the Khatu Shyam Mandir Seva Samiti places this crash squarely in that grey zone. When a temple trust’s car accumulates nine speeding tickets without consequence, the system has already failed before any alcohol is consumed or any motorcycle is struck.
The alcohol recovered from the SUV adds another layer. Under Rajasthan’s excise laws, transporting significant quantities of liquor without proper authorisation is an offence. Whether Chauhan was moving the alcohol for personal use, for others, or for some other purpose remains under investigation. But the visual of alcohol cartons inside a vehicle linked to a sacred institution has fueled outrage in a town that lives by pilgrimage tourism. Pushkar is marketed to the world as a place of spiritual cleansing. The image of a temple volunteer driving drunk on its outskirts is the inverse of that promise.
Chauhan has been taken into custody. Charges include driving under the influence, causing death by negligent action, and related motor vehicle offences. The Fortuner has been seized for forensic examination. What remains unclear is whether the temple trust itself will face any accountability. Nine challans were allowed to sit unpaid. No mechanism appears to have flagged the vehicle for impoundment or even for a simple compliance check. That is not merely an oversight. It is a systems failure.
India’s road safety records, compiled over several years, consistently identify speeding as a primary contributor to highway fatalities. Alcohol-impaired driving accounts for a substantial share of those deaths. Rajasthan has repeatedly ranked among the states with the highest per-capita rates of drunk driving accidents. The Pushkar-Ajmer highway, where this crash occurred, has been noted in transport assessments as a high-risk corridor, with dozens of fatal incidents documented in recent memory. None of those warnings altered the trajectory of the Fortuner.
The takeaway is not complicated. A single intoxicated driver, an SUV owned by a temple trust, and nine ignored speeding citations produced one dead painter and four injured passengers. Chauhan bears direct responsibility for his actions behind the wheel. But the broader failure belongs to a system that allowed a trust-registered vehicle to accumulate nine violations without being pulled from service, then permitted that same vehicle to be driven at night with alcohol inside. Religious institutions in India carry immense moral authority. That authority comes with administrative obligations. Temple fleets must be held to the same standards as every other vehicle on the road. No trust-owned car should have outstanding challans. No sevadar should drive after drinking. On the highway, faith does not grant immunity. Justice does not make exceptions.
References
- Free Press Journal — "Illegal Mining: Supreme Court Slams MP, UP & Rajasthan Over Unregistered Vehicles" (May 26, 2026)
- The Times of India — "Overspeed, careless driving major causes of road accidents: NCRB report" (August 30, 2022)
- Eastern Mirror — "Overspeeding, careless driving major causes of road accidents — NCRB report" (August 30, 2022)
- India Code — The Rajasthan Excise Act, 1950
- Free Press Journal — "Overspeed, careless driving major causes of road accidents: NCRB report" (August 30, 2022)
- Rajasthan High Court — Pritam Lal Vs. State of Rajasthan (1988).