Bagalkot: A 35-year-old mother of two died in an accident as her husband, who was riding the bike, got onto a video call and the vehicle jumped over a pipeline jutting out of the road in Bagalkot. The call was most likely from their children, to check when they would reach home, the victim’s father said.
Shekharayya Laxmayya Vibhuti, 39, who is an Army soldier, was dropping off his wife Pushpavati at her maternal home in Hiremalagavi village in Hungund taluk on Sunday evening when the accident occurred. Vibhuti was to report for duty in Kashmir, and was leaving for Belagavi airport on Monday.
The couple set off from their home in Timmasagar. Midway, at Basanal village, Vibhuti received the video call. “Shekharayya never rode the bike rashly or carelessly. I don’t know how it happened. A protruding pipeline formed a hump on the road and Pushpavati was found dead at the roadside,” said Andanayya Veerayya Choukimath, Pushpavati’s father.
“I got a call from a Basanal villager that my daughter is dead. They have been married for 10 years and Pushpavati and the children would live at our house whenever Shekharayya went outside for work. Pushpavati was the eldest of my three children. God has done them a great injustice, the children are inconsolable,” he said over phone, breaking down. The couple have a son in Class 5 and a daughter in Class 3. Images showed a distraught Shekharayya clutching his wife’s body on the road. It could not be confirmed which unit Shekharayya was posted to and in what position.
Bagalkot SP Lokesh Jagalasar said a case of negligent driving has been registered at Amingad police station. “We have come to know that Shekharayya was distracted and did not pay full attention to the road while riding the bike,” he said.