A senior journalist working with a Kannada daily was killed in a road accident when a truck overturned on him near Town Hall in Bengauru on January 23, Sunday afternoon, the police said. Gangadhar Murthy (49) was on his way to his office on his motorbike when the tragedy occurred, the police added. They said the truck driver had lost control of the vehicle and crashed against a road divider. The driver fled the spot after the accident.

Murthy was rushed to Victoria Hospital but could not be saved. The journalist is survived by his wife and two children. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani and Higher Education Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan condoled Murthy's demise.

In April 2020, a journalist working with a Kannada news channel was killed in a road accident in Ramanagara district. Hanumanthu (31), who worked with news channel Public TV, was killed in an accident while he was coming from Ramanagara jail after covering a story.

Hanumanthu was reporting the news that over 100 suspects had been arrested in connection with the Padarayanapura incident in west Bengaluru. On April 19, tension had prevailed at Padarayanapura as some secondary contacts of COVID-19 patients along with a few locals tried to remove barricades and argued with officials who had come to shift them to a quarantine facility.

Deccan Herald quoted another TV reporter as saying that while others decided to take a breather at a tea shop, Hanumanthu departed on his bike to record some visuals from Mysore Road when a cash van rear-ended him. Then Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the bereaved family.

With PTI inputs