A 20-year-old engineering student from Hyderabad, Ishanya Pathireddy, was arrested by the Kushaiguda police and sent to judicial remand at the Chanchalguda women’s prison on Tuesday, after an accident that killed one person.
The incident took place near DAE colony in Kushaiguda at around midnight in the early hours of Monday, when the driver ran over and killed T Ashok Kumar, a cobbler who was sleeping on the pavement.
While the police said that Ishanya was not drunk, they added that her friends who were in the car with her, were in an inebriated condition.
The police said that they collected CCTV footage from the premises of Up – The Roof Top Lounge; a bar in AS Rao Nagar, to put the sequence of events together.
“The footage was collected as an evidence to prove that Ishanya was the one who drove the car. Apart from that, eye-witnesses were also questioned and their statements have been recorded. In the footage recovered from the parking area, Ishanya was seen helping two of her friends get into the car,” Kushaiguda Inspector K Chandrashekar was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, the police also booked the bar cum restaurant under sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for serving liquor to two persons below the age of 21, despite the owner's claim that the staff had checked their ID proofs.
In a related development, officials from Telangana's Prohibition and Excise department visited the premises of the outlet and sealed it.
"We have sealed the facility and their trade license also is being suspended under Section 31(1) (b) of the Telangana State Excise Act,” K Pradeep Rao, Malkajgiri excise superintendent, told reporters.
Ishaniya and her friends – all engineering students – told police that they were trying to avoid hitting a dog which appeared in the middle of the road and in that moment of panic Ishaniya lost control of the vehicle and ran over Ashok, who was sleeping on the pavement.
After running over Ashok, the car hit a compound wall and came to an abrupt halt, injuring the students inside the car. Ashok was rushed to Gandhi Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
There was a mild commotion after the accident as angry locals had an argument with the girls and accused them of driving in an inebriated condition.
Although locals alleged that the car was driven by a girl under the influence of alcohol, police had dismissed the allegations after a breath analyser test.
Police registered a case against the driver under section 304A (Causing death by negligence), 337(Causing hurt by act endangering life) and 427(Mischief causing damage) of IPC.