Ballari: Nitin Badekillaya (32), associate professor at the SDM College of Engineering in Ujie of DK district, died in a tragic road collision on NH 13 in the afternoon on Saturday, Mar 28.
Accompanied by his wife Divya (28), son Ninad (5), father Nityananda Badekillaya, mother Shashikala and a relative Prabhavati, he had gone on a pilgrimage to Mantralaya. On their way back, they visited the historic ruins of the Vijayanagar empire in Hampi.
After lunch at the house of an acquaintance at Hospet, they had set out on way back to Dharmasthala around 2 pm. As the car they were travelling in reached the Guda forest gate, a lorry collided with it. In an attempt to avoid a collision, Nitin who was at the wheel jumped off the car but got stuck between the two vehicles.
On the other hand, as the driver of the lorry tried to apply sudden brakes, it rolled over and fell flat in the middle of the road. Its driver, Shantakumar (27) from Salem in Tamil Nadu, got crushed under it and died.
Nityananda, Divya, Ninad, Shashikala and Prabhavati sustained injuries and were admitted to a hospital in Hospet.
Nitin Badekillaya had earlier studied Engineering at AMC Engineering College and served at MIT Manipal. He had also done the MTech course there. He taught Computer Science at the SDM College of Engineering in Ujire over the past year.
