Three persons were killed on the spot and six others were injured after the SUV in which they were traveling rammed an electricity pole on National Highway 75 at Gudemaranahalli Hand Post, near Kudur, in Ramanagara district late Wednesday night.
The deceased have been identified as Kishan (35), Akshay (35) and Monappa (43). The injured were shifted to Victoria hospital.
All of them are natives of Hosangady in Kasargod district in Kerala.
A senior police officer said that the group had visited Tirupati and were returning to their native when the accident occurred.
Initially, nobody noticed the accident as it was dark. Later, some vehicles noticed the accident around 1 am and found all injuries were unconscious and rushed them to hospital.
Three were declared dead on arrival. Among the six injured, the condition of Raghavendra and Chandrashekar is said to be serious, while Balakrishna, Mahabala, Pushparaj and Jagadish escaped with minor injuries and are being treated at the hospital.
The Kudur police said Chandrashekar, who was driving the SUV, was speeding and rammed the electricity pole after he lost control of the vehicle.
Police found that all had visited Sabarimala in Kerala and then went to Tirupati as they were still wearing the ‘Aiyappa Maale’.
The bodies of the deceased were handed over to families after the postmortem. Police have booked reckless driving against the driver.
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