KANPUR Three farmers died allegedly after being run over by the vehicle of a Public Works Department official in Kanpur's Bilhaur town on Monday evening, police said.
The vehicle, which belongs to a junior engineer of the PWD Ayodhya, was being driven by driver Ajeet Kumar Pandey when the incident happened, they said.
The preliminary investigation revealed that Pandey was in an inebriated state while driving the car, SHO (Bilhaur) Surendra Singh said.
Pandey was on his way to Ayodhya after dropping the junior engineer's family in Sikandara in Kanpur Dehat when he lost control of the vehicle on the Lucknow-Etawah road and ran over Surendra Singh (62), Ahibaran Singh (63) and Ghaseete Yadav (65), police said.
The three elderly farmers, all residents of Billhaur, were standing on the side of the road to take care of their orchards, they said, adding that all three died on the spot.
"We suspect that Pandey was driving the vehicle rashly and negligently when the fatal accident took place, " the SHO said.
The accused driver who fled from the spot after the accident, leaving the damaged SUV car behind, was later arrested, he said.
An FIR has also been registered under relevant sections of the IPC at Bilhaur police station, the SHO added.