Mahesh, son of cobbler Ashok Kumar, who was killed in the car crash that took place after Sunday midnight, had a fortuitous escape as he was just inches away when the vehicle went over his father.
Locals say Ashok was in the path of the vehicle while Mahesh was sleeping next to his father on the pavement. Police said the son escaped with injuries to his legs. Mahesh used to help his father at the family’s tin-box outlet on the pavement, running along Kamala Nagar road close to the ECIL crossroads.
The sedan, driven by a 19-year-old, was only about 350 metres from the ECIL crossroads where it negotiated a roundabout, to accelerate before it got onto the pavement.
“The car was travelling at a very high speed and before we realised what happened, it ran over Ashok and injured his son,” a fruit-seller in the area, who was identified as Ramulu, said. The man said he was returning from Nagaram around midnight and was yards away from the accident spot at the time.
The impact of the crash was such that it caused a significant portion of DAE Colony’s stone and concrete boundary wall to collapse.
On Monday, the accident spot, littered with debris from the car and the remains of the cobbler’s workplace, continued to attract the attention of the public.
Tension in area
“The cobbler had been here for more than 15 years. He used to eat and sleep here. He did not want to go home,” said a local, Raghunatha Rao, who stated that there was tension in the area as locals maintained that the accident, an alleged case of driving under the influence of alcohol, was being hushed up.
In the videos from the site of accident, locals can be heard questioning the police about claims that a male driver had fled the spot. Incidentally, until late on Monday, cops manning the DAE Colony entrance were telling passers-by that there was a driver named Arjun, who gave the police the slip.
The Kushaiguda police, however, stated that there were only four women in the car and named the driver in the FIR.
