The Ganesha festival turned tragic for four people who were killed on the spot when an Army truck went berserk on Mysore Road near Doddabele Junction, Kengeri on Monday morning.
The truck driver, an Army sepoy, was found heavily drunk. He has been identified as Jyothiba Maruti Belgaonkar, 31, hailing from Belgaum. Belgaonkar was later arrested.
A couple who were returning home on a scooter after visiting a temple and two others who were out on work, in another scooter, were crushed to death. The Army truck was heading towards the City from Mysore.
The truck was transporting the bikes used in the stunts displayed at the two-day Army mela that concluded in Mysore on Sunday. Police said the driver has put in 11 years of service in the Army. He was recently posted to Bangalore from Ahmedabad.
At about 10.45 am, the driver lost control over the vehicle. The truck crossed over the road central median and started moving recklessly on the other side of the road. The truck rammed an MUV (Tempo) and two scooters, which were moving in the Mysore direction, head-on.
The couple - Manju Prasad, 48, and his wife Mahadevi, 45, (residents of Babusapalya) - were crushed to death on the spot. The scooter went under the truck wheels and was damaged completely.
While Prasad was working in a private company on Avenue Road, Mahadevi was employed at Bombay Ryan garments factory. Their children, Sindhu, 22, and Shakti Vinayaka, 19, were riding home on another bike.
One of the wheels of the truck ran over the other scooter, killing Anjan Kumar, 19, who was riding the two-wheeler and Prakash, 24, the pillion rider. The duo sustained head injuries and died on the spot.
The two were residents of Anchepalya. Prakash was doing his diploma at MEI Polytechnic College. They had come out to buy pooja items for the festival.
People soon gathered at the accident site and apprehended the truck driver. He was visibly drunk. Girish, DCP (traffic west), said that an alcometer test on him showed a very high reading of 343 mg/100 ml of blood, while the permissible limit is 30 mg/100 ml. A medical examination was conducted on him at the Victoria Hospital on Monday afternoon. The report is awaited.
The Kengeri police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the IPC. He was produced before the magistrate of the jurisdictional court on Monday evening. He was remanded in 14-day judicial custody.
He is presently lodged at the Parappana Agrahara central prison.