DMK MLA's son among 7 killed as Audi Q3 rams into wall

Bengaluru: Seven persons were killed including three women and a son of DMK MLA from Hosur in Tamil Nadu after a speeding luxury Audi Q3 car rammed into a pole on the footpath and later the wall of a nearby building in the wee hours of Tuesday in Bengaluru.

The incident took place near Mangala Kalyana Mantapa in Koramangala locality. The deceased are identified as Karuna Sagar (28), son of DMK MLA from Hosur constituency Y. Prakash, Dr Bindu, Ishita (21), Dr Dhanusha (21), Akshay Goyal (23), Utsav and Rohith (23).

Preliminary investigations suggested Dr Bindu as the daughter-in-law of MLA Prakash. However, it was clarified that his son was unmarried.

The impact of the accident was such that six of them have died on the spot and one succumbed on the way to hospital. The airbags of the luxury vehicles did not open, leading to the death of all the occupants in the vehicle, the Audugodi traffic police said.

The eyewitnesses recalled that they heard an explosion like sound. Soon, the public gathered and called an ambulance and the police. Four of them were not breathing and it took nearly 20 minutes to drag the body out of the vehicle.

All the deceased are aged between 20 to 30 years. Three of them sat in the front and four in the back seats. None of them wore seat belts as per the preliminary investigations. All dead bodies are kept at the mortuary of Saint John's hospital.

According to police officials, Akshay Goyal is from Kerala and Utsav hailed from Haryana. Rohith was from Hubballi and some of them were staying at a PG hostel.

Audi Q3 vehicle involved in the accident was a mangled mass. The interior of the car was smeared with blood stains and two rear wheels on the left side were smashed.

According to police, Karuna Sagar came to Bengaluru to buy medicines at 5.30 p.m. on Monday. He also carried out business in Bengaluru. The family had called him for dinner at 9.30 pm. He informed his family that he would not come for dinner and went ahead with his friends.

Additional Commissioner for Traffic Dr Ravikanthe Gowda visited the spot and said, "The accident has taken place due to negligent and rash driving. An investigation will be conducted by a team headed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP)," he said.

It is yet to be ascertained whether the driver was in an inebriated state. The driver had lost control of the speeding car, which had rammed into the electric pole on the footpath and later dashed into the wall of Punjab National Bank building.

The car was registered in the name of Sanjeevini Blue Metal Company.