Karnataka: Two police teams to probe Mercedes crash near Ballari

By: Shreyas HS & HM Mahendra Kumar
BALLARI: Under pressure, Ballari police on Friday set up two teams to investigate Monday’s Mercedes car crash on National Highway 50.
Officials said one team will probe if revenue minister R Ashoka’s son Sharath was present in the car.
The postmortem on Sachin, a passenger in the car who died in the impact of the accident, was conducted around midnight at Hospet Government Hospital, indicating pressure on police officers and doctors.“Postmortems in government hospitals are conducted usually in the day. They are performed in the night only in special cases,” a source explained.
Ballari additional superintendent of police BN Lavanya defended the police action and said, “In normal course, police don’t let off the driver. They do (let off) if doctors suggest they need to be shifted to a hospital in case of grievous injuries.”
Asked why the doctors performed the postmortem in the night, she said: “You should ask the doctors. We in the (police) department obey the SP.”
After handing over a cheque of Rs 50,000 to the kin of Ravi Naik, an 18-year-old construction worker from Mandya who was knocked down dead by the speeding Mercedes on National Highway, Hagaribommanahalli Congress MLA Bheema Naik said, “Conducting autopsy in the night is against the law. I’ll urge the chief minister and the home minister to conduct an impartial investigation into it.”
He said the Hospet hospital has 16 CCTV cameras, but its authorities have refused to share footage with him. “All this raises several questions,” he said.
Bharathi Bai, who works at a private hospital in Hospet, said: “Unidentified youths brought in an injured person to our hospital, but doctors refused to offer him treatment since it was a case of accident. Later, they took him to a government hospital. I can identify the youths.”
Where is Sharath Ashoka?
Was Karnataka revenue minister R Ashoka’s son Sharath badly injured in the accident involving a Mercedes Benz that killed two persons on a national highway in Ballari district?
As Ballari police personnel question the accused in the case, they are also trying to ascertain if the family and friends of those involved in the crash are still holding on to some facts and the exact roles played by the occupants of the car that crashed on Monday afternoon.
Sleuths want to know why isn’t Ashoka asking Sharath to show up in public to clear the air on the controversy.
Rahul, the prime suspect as per the police FIR, could face charges of misleading the police for his claim that he was driving the car at the time of accident. “We are investigating the reasons why the family isn’t revealing Sharath’s whereabouts,” a police inspector, part of the probe team, said.
Senior police officers said Sharath’s presence in the car could be ascertained by tracking his mobile number’s activity on Monday.
A police officer said the car’s airbag that opened in the accident could offer vital clues since the driver is impacted on his body or face in what’s called silicon bite or air-bag scrap. “Going by nature of injuries, one could find out who was possibly at the wheel,” he added.
Eyewitness and police accounts said the Mercedes took the full impact, rolled over twice before crashing into a tea kiosk.