The birthday celebrations of a 26-year-old youth ended in tragedy when he and three of his friends were killed in a road accident while they were heading to Nandi Hills. Five others who were in their SUV were injured.
According to the police, the driver — one of the friends — who was allegedly speeding lost control and the vehicle overturned. The incident occurred near Handarahalli Cross at Devanahalli around 3 a.m. on Saturday.
Mallikarjuna Reddy, who worked at Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra had celebrated his birthday with eight friends at his house at MS Palya.
“After cutting a cake, they decided to go to Nandi Hills to watch the sunrise,” the police added.
One of his friends Ashok Reddy (26), who worked with a travel agency had an SUV from his office on rent and decided to drive them to Nandi Hills. However, he was allegedly speeding and lost control while negotiating a curve. The SUV collided with a median, and on impact overturned. It continued rolling for a few metres before coming to a halt.
Motorists who were driving by saw the injured passengers crying out for help and started extricating the survivors from the SUV. The police arrived at the spot soon after and took over the rescue operations. Mallikarjuna Reddy, Ashok Reddy, Nagaraju, 25, and Sundar, 25, a businessman were declared brought dead by doctors at a hospital in the area. “They were sitting in the front of the vehicle. The remaining five friends, who were sitting at the back, sustained injuries and are being treated at a private hospital in Hoskote,” said the police.
The injured have been identified as Girish, 23, Ramesh, 26, Manjunath, 26, Ashok, 26, and Raghunath Reddy, 22.
‘Completely damaged’
A senior police officer said the SUV was completely damaged. “It shows the magnitude of the accident,” he said.
The police have booked Ashok Reddy for death due to negligence and rash and negligent driving.
