BENGALURU: Till an early morning call from the Sulibele police, the parents of the six boys, who died in a horrific accident between Hoskote and Devanahalli just hours earlier on Friday, did not know that their sons were not at home. They were under the impression that the boys were sleeping in their rooms.
The police told the parents that their wards had met with an accident and asked them to come to the spot. When the parents rushed, the police informed them that the accident was fatal and the bodies of all the six had been shifted to the Hoskote Government Hospital mortuary for the postmortem.
Ashwin Nair had just completed his first PU exams at a private college in Yelahanka and had gone out with his friends to celebrate on Thursday night. He is said to have left home without informing his mother who was at home.
She had assumed that her son was sleeping in his room. In the morning, the security guard told her that he had gone out with his friends in the night in a four-wheeler. When she called Ashwin’s phone, policemen answered the call and informed her about the accident. The family from Kerala settled down in Bengaluru two years ago.
Among the other dead, Arhaan Sheriff was to go on the Umrah, an Islamic pilgrimage, to Mecca on Monday. “He was supposed to go with his family on the pilgrimage via Dubai. Air tickets had been booked. He had gone with his friends without telling anybody. The police called in the morning around 7 and told the family about the accident,” his uncle Syed said.
Ethan George went to his room Thursday night, saying he was going to sleep. When the police called, the parents, who were not aware of him venturing out at night, told them that Ethan was sleeping at home. Later, they knocked on his room door, but there was no response, and the realisation hit them hard.
Balasubramani, the truck driver who was injured when the SUV hit his vehicle, said, “The accident occurred between 4.30 and 4.45 am. I was driving on the right side. What I know is that some vehicle crashed into my truck from behind. The impact toppled my truck and it fell on the other side of the road. I fell unconscious. Some local residents helped me up. I used a mobile phone of one of them to call my friend who was driving ahead. Later, I was shifted to the hospital. The truck was heading from Malur to Tumakuru. I did not know which vehicle hit my truck. The impact dislodged the truck’s axle.”
Bengaluru Rural SP MV Chandrakanth said there is no information as to where the boys in the SUV were heading.
Biker Gagan died for no fault of his
Twenty-six-year-old N Gagan was returning home on his two-wheeler in Devanayakanahalli in Channarayapatna after his night shift when tragedy struck. The young man died for no fault of his. He was working as a manager in a wholesale marker and auctioning centre for fruits and vegetables at Pillagumpe in Hosakote.
Gagan, a BCom graduate, was also occupied with agriculture during his free time. He was unmarried.
“This week he had a night shift from 5.30 pm to 3.15 am. He was returning home on his bike (KA-43-L-2913). Only after the police called us around 6 am, we got to know about the accident. Gagan was staying with his mother Lakshmi who is visually impaired. He was the only son. He was not married. He was the sole breadwinner of the family. He has been working in the present place for the last one year. When we went to the accident spot, the police had already shifted the body to the mortuary,” Gagan’s uncle Devaraj said. The body was handed over to the kin after the postmortem in the afternoon.
Lakshmi broke down sitting in front of her son’s body. “My son had spoken to me on Thursday evening before going to work. In the middle of his work, he had called to inform me that his company would provide him a car. Now he is no more,” she lamented.