Though the driver of the luxury SUV which rammed the crowd did not sustain any injuries in the high-speed crash thanks to timely deployment of airbags, he had to face the wrath of the mob. He was later arrested and remanded in custody.
Those who witnessed the accident pulled out P. Jagadeesh Kumar, 34, of Coonnoor, from the vehicle by breaking the windscreen and assaulted him. Onlookers also shot a video of the same, which went viral on social media. The driver, who was accused of drunk driving, was bleeding when the police reached the spot. He was shifted to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH).
The police said the SUV involved in the accident was registered in the name of Span Edutech Ventures Private Limited, a Coimbatore-based group running educational institutions.
They said that Mr. Kumar was on the way to Podanur to pick up Madan A. Sendhil, one of the directors of Span Edutech Ventures Private Limited, when the accident took place. “As per the statement given [to us], the driver had returned after a drive to Bengaluru on Tuesday midnight. He had slept at the driver's quarters in a private college on Pollachi Road, which belonged to his employer. According to him, he was unaware of what went wrong a few seconds before the accident,” said a police official. It was also alleged that the accident occurred when Mr. Kumar bent down to pick up his mobile phone.
