Businessman, friend killed in car crash

A businessman and a civil contractor were killed on the spot while their friend was critically injured when a car by which they were travelling plunged into an agricultural field near Nelamangala on Saturday evening.

H C Suresh, 42, a resident of Basaveshwarnagar and the owner of Solar Power Motors, a two-wheeler showroom-cum-garage on Dr Rajkumar Road in Rajajinagar and Raghuram, 38, civil contractor from Gayatri Nagar, are the dead. Gangadhar, their friend, who sustained head injuries, is battling for life at M S Ramaiah Hospital.

The accident occurred on National Highway-8 at around 7 pm at Mahadevapura when they were returning to the City from Kunigal. Raghuram, who was at the wheels of Suresh’s car, lost control of the vehicle when he suddenly applied the brakes to avoid hitting a dog and took a left turn. The car turned turtle on the elevated expressway and plunged on the service road some 15 feet below. 

It again turned upside down and fell into the agricultural land another 10 feet away. The intensity of the accident was such that the car was thrown nearly 80 feet away even from the agricultural land and was completely mangled, said the police.

Suresh and Raghuram were killed on the spot, while Gangadhar fell unconscious with head injuries. The police rushed to the spot and shifted him to M S Ramaiah Harsha Hospital. But doctors advised them to rush Gangadhar to M S Ramaiah Hospital in Bangalore as his condition was critical.

Suresh hailed from Hosakere village in Gubbi taluk. He is a close associate of Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Animal Husbandry T B Jayachandra. He was also a Congress party worker. He is survived by wife Meenakshi, daughters Ranjitha, 18, Monika, 10, and son Prithvi, 13.

Suresh and Raghuram had left for Tumkur on Saturday morning and had gone to Kunigal from there after completing their work. Gangadhar had bagged the contract of building a private nursing home in Kunigal and had gone there by a bus to monitor the work on Saturday morning. Suresh contacted Gangadhar and asked him to join them on their way back to Bangalore.

On the way, the three visited Chikkannaswamy temple on Kunigal-Bangalore Road and the accident occurred soon after they departed from the temple.