Vishakapatnam, July 25: The identity of the five who threw a passenger out of an auto resulting in his death yesterday night is still unclear, but two people who were there in the auto when the incident occurred, one a friend of the victim and the other a relative, claimed that they were Naval personnel.
Raja Rao (38) from Sunkidi village in Sompeta mandal of Srikakulam district was returning to his village with two associates in an eight-seater auto from Gajuwaka near here last night when five people boarded the auto at Samudrika, the Naval auditorium, around 10 pm. They told Raja Rao, sitting in the front row, to move back but he refused leading to an argument between the two groups. The tussle continued even as the vehicle was on the move and, in a fit of rage, they allegedly beat up the three and pushed Raja Rao out of the vehicle.
He died instantly.
“All the five were speaking in Hindi and were in an inebriated condition. From their behaviour, appearance and hairstyle, I can say they were Naval employees,” claimed Maddu Viswanath, Raja Rao’s friend who was on the auto.
Viswanath told Express that he and Bangari Srinu, a relative of Raja Rao, accompanied him to Gajuwaka to meet an agent who was processing papers to send Raja Rao to Singapore for a job.Narrating the incident further, Viswanath said, soon after Rao was thrown out of the auto, the panicked driver stopped the vehicle and he and Bangari got down. The Naval personnel, however, forced the driver to proceed. They then stopped a two-wheeler going by and chased the auto. They intercepted it about one-and-ahalf km down the road but the driver told them that all the five had got down and vanished into the darkness in the Naval base area Meanwhile, the police have launched a manhunt for the accused and requested the Naval authorities to cooperate in the investigation.
They took the auto driver into custody.
The Eastern Naval Command, in an official release, said there are doubts on the number and identity of the assailants. An internal inquiry has been ordered and if anybody was found guilty, they would be handed over to the police, the command said.
--Agencies
Read More
Post new comment