Date:04/03/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/04/stories/2007030420230300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Man held on charge of killing three postal employees

Staff Reporter

Car he was driving was involved in a hit-and-run case on Friday night

DAMAGED: The car that Nikhil was driving on Friday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: In a swift action, the police on Saturday traced a car involved in a hit-and-run incident that killed three postal employees near the General Post Office (GPO) on Raj Bhavan Road on Friday night. The driver, Nikhil G. Thanvade (29), a manager with an English weekly publication, has been arrested.

The victims have been identified as Srinath (40) of Kavalbyarasandra, K. Vincent (40) of Lingarajapuram and Shivappa Huraliyal (39) of R.T. Nagar. While Srinath was a Group D employee, the two others were sorting assistants.

The police said that around 10.10 p.m. on Friday five GPO employees who were on night shift were returning to work after dinner. Three of them, Srinath, Vincent and Shivappa, stepped on to the road from a footpath when the car, which was going towards Raj Bhavan from the Central Telegraph Office (CTO) junction, hit them and sped away.

They suffered severe injuries on the head, chest, abdomen and face. Their colleagues rushed them to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital. While Srinath was declared brought dead, the others died in the early hours of Saturday, police said.

The car and its driver would have remained untraced but for the presence of mind of a GPO employee Harish, who was with the group. He noticed that the car's number plate had shattered following the collision and painstakingly put together the nearly 20 pieces strewn on the road. After examining the number plate, the police confirmed the number as KA-25/N 3168. They got in touch with their counterparts and Transport Department officials in Hubli and found that the Hubli-registered car was being used by Nikhil in Bangalore. The police went to Nikhil's house in R.T. Nagar around 10.30 a.m. and found the car with its front portion damaged. Nikhil, who had tried to replace the number plate, confessed to the accident following interrogation and also admitted that he was drunk, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M.N. Reddi told presspersons.

Commissioner of Police Neelam Achuta Rao visited the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and consoled the bereaved families. Several GPO employees who gathered at the hospital said despite several requests, GPO authorities had failed to provide them with canteen facility on the premises. Employees on night shift were forced to go out to nearby food outlets. Had there been a canteen at the GPO, the three would not have met with such a tragic end, some of them told The Hindu.