Range Rover crash: Sagar wasn’t at the wheel, say cops

It wasn’t businessman Sagar Jayram at the wheel of the Range Rover Evoque involved in the ghastly accident, which in fact killed him near Hoskerehalli toll booth on NICE Road on Tuesday.

Sagar’s friend and business partner, Gowtham was driving the vehicle on a test drive, the police said on Wednesday.

Soon after the accident, as the victims were taken to the BGS Global Hospital, Gowtham allegedly told the police that he wasn’t driving.

Demo car driver Shivakumar, in the co-passenger seat next to the driver, after receiving first-aid, headed to the police station and confirmed that it was indeed Gowtham who was driving.

Shivakumar has been made the complainant and an eyewitness. Byatarayanapura traffic police have pressed charges against Gowtham for causing accidental death due to rash and negligent driving, not amounting to murder. The police are waiting for Gowtham, (27), a resident of Girinagar, to recover to arrest and question him.

“As all victims were in shock soon after the accident, our men initially presumed that it was Sagar who could be driving. It later turned out as Gowtham,” said DCP Soumyalatha S K.

Shivakumar told the police that though Sagar was the one interested in buying the car, Gowtham was driving it while Sagar and his wife Sandhya along with their six-year-old son Samarth sat behind. The family members were not wearing seat belts and when the car toppled. Sagar hit himself against the front seat and window panes sustaining injuries to his face and bleeding from his ears, the police said.

Gowtham was driving the car in a rash and negligent manner, at least between 150 to 180 kmph, when he lost control. The vehicle hit a toll booth road median, ploughed through the guard rails and an iron fence, toppling into an open ground 10-12 metres beneath. The accident instantly killed Sagar, while his wife Sandhya fractured her spine. Their son Samarth escaped unhurt. Gowtham and Shivakumar survived as they wore seat-belts and their airbags deployed.

Meanwhile, the bereaved family members of Sagar Jayram claimed his body from the Victoria Hospital after the postmortem on Wednesday. Sagar’s wife is still in a critical condition.