Police to clip wings of errant teenage driver involved in three accidental deaths

MANGALORE: The passport of teenager Akash Shetty, 18, is unlikely to pass the muster of Mangalore City Police when it comes for police verification.
The teenager is involved in three accidental deaths, two when he was a minor and one recently due to rash and negligent driving. The accused does not possess driving licence.
Shetty, pursuing engineering at a college in Bangalore, was in Mangalore for his passport verification process. During the stay he had borrowed a powerful two wheeler and was on his beach along with pillion Andrea Patrao, 18. She was killed when a tipper moved on her when the victim fell on the right side of the road after Shetty braked hard using the front brakes.
Though police initially booked a case against the tipper driver, CCTV footage at a nearby hotel showed that Shetty was responsible for the girl falling off the vehicle due to his rash and negligent riding. Following this Shetty was arrested under sections 279 (Rash driving on any public way in a manner so as to endanger human life) and 304A (Causing death by negligence by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide) and also for not having a driver's licence and not informing the police about the accident. He was arrested based on the previous track record and later released on bail.
Mangalore City Traffic Police Assistant Commissioner of Police Uday Nayak said: We will point out the two cases and express apprehension of Shetty leaving the country in case the passport is granted.
On August 21, 2010, Shetty's morning adrenalin rush riding a sports utility vehicle (SUV) snuffed out lives of two workers near KIOCL main gate at Panambur on National Highway 17. Shetty, then 15, was a student of Cambridge School at Paldane. He was returning to the city from Tannirbhavi beach, where Panambur police said, the accused had gone to meet his friends.
Valentine D' Souza, then Panambur Police Inspector, investigating officer of the case said as per eyewitness account, Shetty who was driving the SUV hit Ganesh Sanil (31), resident of Thokur, and Deekshith Shetty (18), resident of Kulshekar, killing them on the spot. The vehicle then came to a rest before a small mound of mud across a drain on the right hand side flank of NH 17. The accused had miraculously escaped unscathed from this incident.