Karnataka MLA flees as his car kills man

This incident may be reminiscent of three Tamil Nadu ministers standing as mute spectators as a cop bled to death after a gang chopped his legs two years ago.

But Tumkur rural BJP MLA Suresh Gowda on Sunday went a step ahead in shaming his political fraternity when his car knocked dead a 70-year-old man in full view of the victim’s family members in front of the SLR Convention Hall in Nelamangala - the MLA scooted from the spot, leaving his driver with the car.

The septuagenarian, Thimma Hanumanthaiah, a former employee of HMT who represented the public sector enterprise in its volleyball team, was rushed to the nearby Harsha Hospital which referred his case to Columbia Asia in Yeshwanthpur where he died in the afternoon.

The car in which Gowda was travelling with four others, hit Hanumanthaiah at around 9.30 am. Hanumanthaiah had got down from his car at the footpath opposite to Hall, informing his family that he would rather cross the road on foot than drive for another 500 metres to take U-turn and return to the hall. He had crossed the road till the central median and was about to cross the rest of the road’s breadth when Gowda’s speeding car (driven by his driver Dayananda, 32) knocked him down.