BENGALURU: A 14-year-old boy, Bala Chauhan, a member of a nomadic family from Maharashtra, was run over and killed on the spot while his mother Mala Bai, 39, sustained injuries when a rashly driven container lorry ran over them near Jas Toll opposite a petrol bunk on Bengaluru-Tumakuru Highway in the Nelamangala police limits in the wee hours of Monday.
The boy was part of a family of 14 who are natives of Jalgaon in Maharashtra. They had arrived in Bengaluru from Dharwad for the weekend to sell goods at the Chikpet Sunday Bazar, as was their practice most weekends.
The family members were asleep by the side of the highway at about 2 am when the container lorry, said to be bearing registration number NL 01 K 3941, ran over Bala, killing him instantly and seriously injuring his mother.
The screams of the mother woke up the rest of the family who were horrified to see a bloodied and crushed body of Bala lying in front of them.
Even as they collected their wits over the ghastly sight, the lorry zoomed away, explained an investigating officer.
Nelamangala traffic police have lodged a hit-and-run case against the unidentified driver of the container lorry. The police have located CCTV footage from the petrol bunk and are trying to trace the driver.
The police have also notified police in other districts through which the highway passes to intercept the container lorry and nab the driver.
Delayed and tired from selling their ware at the Chikpet Sunday Bazar, the Chauhan family of 14 members were forced to stay overnight, sleeping by the side of the Bengaluru-Tumakuru highway near Jas Toll, where they reached looking for a lorry to take them to Dharwad.
The family had planned to stay there overnight and hitch-hike a lorry ride to Dharwad the next morning, en route to Jalgaon. Ironically, it was a lorry that took away a dear, young one from their midst.
That decision to sleep by the roadside claimed 14-year-old Bala Chauhan’s life at 2 am on Monday, due to a careless container lorry driver who was trying to park the vehicle by the side of the road.
While 45-year-old Jothu Shivalal Chauhan (Bala’s father), 20-year-old Dileep Rajput Chauhan (Bala’s cousin), four women — Usha (35), Kamala (25), Anitha (24), Asha (23) (all Bala’s aunts) — and six children aged below nine, slept a little away from the road, Mala Bai and her 14-year-old son Bala slept just by the roadside with their heads towards the traffic.
“We were fast asleep when we suddenly heard screams. I opened my eyes to see my cousin lying in a pool of blood and my thayi (aunt) was hit badly injuring her right hand and ear,” said Dileep.
The driver managed to escape, eyewitnesses from the petrol bunk across the road told the police.
The police suspect that the lorry driver, not aware that these people had slept by the roadside, tried to park the lorry. As soon as he realised that he had run over someone, the driver might have panicked and escaped, said the police.