Bhubaneswar: In a fatal accident, a retired Colonel lost his life after being hit by a speeding vehicle during the early hours here on Saturday. Retired Colonel Rabindra Kumar Behera, a former officer of TA (a unit of Territorial Army) Battalion, was hit near the Shani Temple at Niladri Vihar, close to the Chandrashekharpur police station.
Behera was on his way home around 5.30 am after morning walk when an unidentified vehicle struck him and fled the scene. Left bleeding on the road, Behera succumbed to severe head injuries. Though passersby rushed him to the Capital Hospital, he was declared brought dead by doctors. A postmortem was conducted in the presence of his family.
Chandrasekharpur police have registered a case, No 52/25, 281 (rash driving), 106 (death by negligence) under BNS, said an official of Commissionerate Police. Investigation is underway to trace the vehicle and the driver. Officials of the police station said they are reviewing the CCTV footage from the surrounding area to identify the vehicle as witnesses could provide limited details about the accident.
The Niladri Vihar Senior Citizens body has expressed strong resentment over the growing number of fatal accidents in the area. Brigadier L C Patnaik condemned the incident, seeking stricter traffic enforcement and better pedestrian safety measures. "He was bleeding from the nose and his head had severe injuries, so we think a vehicle has hit him from the front as he sustained injuries on the back of his head," he added.
A hit-and-run accident is one in which a driver (usually the one at fault) leaves the scene of the accident intentionally without providing contact details or reporting it to the police.
The capital city of Odisha has been witnessing quite a number of hit-and-run cases in the past few months. On March 30, 2024, a car hit a tea shop owner Dilip Parida of Sunapal, Binjharpur in Jajpur district, killing him on the spot near Saheed Nagar police station. The car that hit the man was allegedly associated with an MLA. The car was seized and its driver detained.
Similarly, on July 15, 2024, a biker died at VaniVihar overbridge after a bus hit him late in the evening. In another incident, on June 29, 2024, a traffic police constable Madhusudan Kishani was hit by a vehicle in front of Crown Hotel in Nayapalli while he was returning home after completing duty. Local police registered a case and arrested the driver, five days after the incident.
Read More
- Karnataka Minister's Driver Claims Hit-And-Run In Accident, Investigation Underway
- One Student Killed As Pickup Van Overturns In Odisha's Banki
- Canada-Returned Man Arrested In Hit-And-Run Case In Southwest Delhi
- India's hit-and-run saga: Six die every hour in accidents involving unidentified vehicles in 2022
