The visuals of a speeding car ramming into four people who were on their morning walk on Tuesday, July 4, which sent them hurtling into the air has shocked Hyderabad. The incident took place at around 6.11am near Sun City in Bandlaguda Jagir on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The mishap left a mother-daughter duo - Anuradha, 45, and her daughter, Mamatha, 25 - dead but the survivors, Malavika (39) and Inthaab Khan (60), have been hospitalised.
At the time of writing this article, Malavika’s condition is stable and doctors have remarked that she might have to undergo a surgery. The condition of Inthaab Khan is critical according to Narsingi police station sub-inspector Balraju.
The kin of Malavika, one of the survivors, are all upset because of media reports which wrongly identified her as one of the deceased. Malavika’s brother Sreekanth said a Telugu media channel continuously ran a scroll saying his sister was dead.
“I gave a passport size photo of my sister to some local media channels when they visited my house because I was told it wouldn’t be an issue. They kept referring to my sister as Anuradha (one of the deceased) even as they used Malavika’s photo,” Sreekanth told TNM.
Malavika’s husband passed away 12 years ago owing to a heart attack. She has three daughters. While the two elder girls, aged 18 and 16, are currently at Sreekanth’s residence in Patancheru, the youngest, an 11-year-old, resides in a hostel.
“The initial media reports said three people including my sister had died. My nieces had started to grieve and only after they were taken to the hospital did they believe their mother wasn’t dead,” said Sreekanth.
Police on Tuesday, June 4, said that the driver of the Honda Civic car, 19-year-old Mohammed Badiuddin Quadri and his friend Abdul Rehman (18) have been arrested. Quadri is a student of Avinash college and both the youngsters did not have a licence. The accused were heading to Moinabad to celebrate Quadri’s birthday. Quadri lost control of the car at a road curve and rammed into the four pedestrians. ACP GV Ramana ruled out all possibilities of intoxication.
The accused have been booked under Sections 304 (ii) (Culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 337 (Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In a nearly similar fatal accident in 2019, a speeding car on the newly-opened Biodiversity flyover in Gachibowli lost control and fell off the bridge, damaging two cars underneath the flyover resulting in the death of a woman and injuries to six people. Due to the airbags' deployment upon impact, the driver escaped with injuries. It was found that the car was moving at a speed of 104 kmph against the advised speed of 40kmph on the flyover. There has been much outrage in Hyderabad as the investigation in that case had not progressed well.