An Assistant Executive Engineer of Minor Irrigation and Ground Water Department, Dakshina Kannada, Shanmugam, has been arrested by the police on the charge of knocking down and killing a pedestrian, who was a retired BSNL employee, in a case of drunken driving near the Circuit House here on Sunday night.
The police gave the name of the deceased as A. Ananda (62). His wife has said that the official was in an inebriated state.
Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar said that medical test carried out on Shanmugam has revealed that he had consumed alcohol.
According to the police, Ananda, who worked for a firm in Udupi, got off a bus and was walking towards his house at about 10 p.m. when the car driven by the Assistant Executive Engineer hit him killing Ananda on the spot.
The footage of the road accident captured by the CCTV camera, which was recovered by the police, showed the car coming down from the Circuit House speedily and negotiating a turn. The car first hit a barricade erected for an electricity pole on the roadside before knocking down Ananda.
The Police Commissioner said that following a complaint by Ananda’s wife Lalitha, the police arrested Shanmugam for offences under Sections 304 (part II) and 304 (A) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder, causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.
