Avanamkuzhy accident: 2 held

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Neyyattinkara police have recorded the arrest of two people in connection with the drunken misadventure that cost the lives of four people at Avanamkuzhy on Wednesday night. Police identified the accused as Vijayakumar (47) of Karakkamandapam and Sunil Kumar (41) of Thirumala. Vijayakumar was the one, who was driving the Mahindra Jeep, which caused the accident.
Police have booked Vijayakumar under section 304 of IPC for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and 185 of Motor Vehicles Act for driving under the influence of alcohol. Sunil Kumar was charged with section 188 of Motor vehicles Act that pertained to abetting drunken driving.
Neyyattinkara circle inspector, G Santhosh Kumar said that search was on for two more people who had escaped from the jeep as soon as the vehicle came to a halt after causing the series of accidents. All four of them were mechanics attached to the Pappanamcode KSRTC depot. They were returning after attending a party in connection with the wedding of their colleague at Uchakkada near Balaramapuram. The CI also said that steps would be initiated to suspend the driving licence of Vijayakumar.
The fatal accident occurred at Avanamkuzhy near Nellimoodu at 8:20pm on Wednesday. The jeep which lost control went on to hit down a bike and an autorickshaw. It came to a stop after ploughing into the verandah of a house on the roadside. Saseendran alias Sasi (45) of Kanjiramkulam, Yohannan alias Rajendran (48) of Pazhayakada, his sister Saroja (55) and Benedict alias Sudhakaran (60) of Nellimoodu were the deceased.
Saseendran was riding the bike. He was going to buy a new pair of footwear for his wife. Yohannan was carrying Saroja and Benedict in his auto. Benedict hired the auto to go home after alighting bus at Balaramapuram. Yohannan picked up Saroja from Balaramapuram, where she was working as a saleswoman. The bodies were released to the relatives after conducting postmortem.