Four days of continuous efforts by the Banaswadi traffic police to trace the woman, who they presume was at the steering wheel of an SUV which dragged four construction workers sleeping on the pavement towards a compound wall and killed one of them in HRBR Layout in the wee hours of Monday, are yet to yield results.
“We have been trying hard to trace the woman, but she is still at large,” Venkataswamy, ACP (Traffic East), told Deccan Herald.
Meanwhile, the investigation has revealed some interesting details. The police are probing into the woman’s background after collecting her call details. She was aged around 35 and was staying alone in Bangalore. She was in constant touch with many elite people. She is said to be unmarried. It is not known when and why she moved to Bangalore from Mysore, said police sources.
Ravi, a cousin of Raghavendra Patil - the owner of the white Toyota Fortuner - attended a party at a hotel hosted by his friend. The woman, who is identified as Manjula, was also invited. One of Ravi’s friends introduced her to him. He met her for the first time at the party, an officer probing the case said.
Ravi had allegedly consumed liquor. He claimed that Manjula was not drunk. She got into the car after he offered to drop her at her place.
It was Ravi who drove the car towards her house at Babusapalya near Banaswadi. She demanded him to allow her to drive the car when they were about to reach third block of HRBR Layout, police said.
Ravi told the police the accident took place within five minutes after she started driving it. He did not know whether she was an expert driver and possessed driving licence, he told the police.
“It is yet to be ascertained whether Ravi himself asked her to drive as he was drunk and thought the traffic police in HRBR Layout might stop them and subject him to alcometer test,” said another officer.
Soon after the accident, Manjula got down and fled. Ravi rushed Nagaraj, the deceased, to the hospital and bore his medical expenses. He only has sketchy details about her, police said.
A team has left for Mysore and Mandya in search of her. They visited the house of Manjula’s sister in Mysore and collected more information. They could not question her sister in detail as she is pregnant.
Nagaraj, 22, a resident of Kirubgere village in Deodurg taluk of Raichur district, was killed, while his relatives - Rangappa, 19, L Gauda, 23, Shivayogi, 23, all from Kirubgere and Hanumanth, 22, from Shivangi village of Deodurg taluk - escaped with minor injuries when an SUV (KA 03 MQ 1369) strayed into the pavement in front of a three-storey commercial building where they were sleeping and dragged them towards the compound wall.
Nagaraj’s wife had delivered their son five days before the accident. He was scheduled to leave for his native place the next day. Shivayogi noticed a woman getting down from the driver’s seat and lodged a complaint.
Ravi had borrowed the car from his cousin on Sunday night to attend the party. Raghavendra Patil had purchased the car on February 25.
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