Police use dead man’s fingerprint to unlock phone, identify accident victims on Hyderabad Outer Ring Road

Hyderabad: Police used a victim's fingerprint to unlock his mobile phone and identify six members of a family killed after their car rammed into a stationary truck near Exit 16 of the Outer Ring Road (ORR) at Thondapalli village in Shamshabad on Friday.Shamshabad inspector K Narender Reddy said that when police reached the scene, they found a mobile phone beside one of the deceased, B Shiva Kumar (37). "We used his fingerprint to unlock the phone and found a contact saved as ‘Dad'. The man is over 70 years old. We could not tell him about the deaths directly." Police then traced another contact and reached Shireesh Kumar, Shiva's brother and a software engineer in Gachibowli, who came to the scene and identified the victims, all of whom were trapped inside the mangled wreckage with no documents on them.Reached by TOI, Shireesh broke down. "They had recently shifted to their new home in Sanathnagar. That one call I received from the police about their deaths shattered our family," he said. He could not continue further.The deceased were identified as Shiva Kumar, a businessman; his wife R Rajeshwari (35); their daughter B Rishitha (7); Shiva's brother-in-law K Srinivas (40), also a businessman; and Srinivas's two sons, Krishna Chandra (13) and K Madhav (10). All six were residents of Sanathnagar and had gone to the Yadagirigutta temple on Friday morning. The accident occurred while they were returning home, shortly after 4 pm.Police said Shiva, who was driving, failed to notice the truck parked on the roadside and crashed into it at high speed. The car, owned by him, got lodged beneath the lorry, trapping all occupants. Srinivas was seated beside Shiva and was holding Rishitha. The other four were in the rear seat, police said.Officials at the Osmania mortuary said the injuries were severe. "Those in the front seat had extensive crush injuries, including to the head, ribs and abdomen, along with liver lacerations," a mortuary official said. "Those in the rear had multiple injuries, though comparatively less severe."Police said the truck driver, Srinivas, had parked the vehicle to tighten loose ropes securing rice bags and was doing so when the car rammed into it. A case has been registered against him for unauthorised parking on the ORR. The vehicle owner is said to be from Kuntloor in Andhra Pradesh.The sole survivor, K Swetha (35), wife of Srinivas, remains in critical condition. She was initially shifted to Trident Hospital and later moved to KIMS Gachibowli, where she is unconscious.The inspector said she suffered severe bleeding in the brain and lungs. Further investigation is underway.Family members who gathered at the mortuary were inconsolable. "My granddaughter, my daughter's sons, our son-in-law, everyone is gone. My daughter is between life and death. Nothing is left for us," said one of the relatives of the deceased while addressing the media.Relatives of the deceased urged strict action to be taken against vehicles stopping illegally along ORR. The bodies were taken to Sircilla for the last rites.Rajeshwari's colleagues at the Food Corporation of India (FCI) expressed shock over the tragedy. "She was planning to have a second child. Her death is a shocking tragedy," said a colleague.
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