Daijworld News Network - Mangalore (MB)

Mangalore, Mar 6: Vikram Narayan Pande, pillion-riding a motorbike with his friend Sandesh, both students of the National Institute of Technology - Karnataka at Srinivasnagar, was killed when a car hit their vehicle on Saturday evening at Tadambail near Suratkal on national highway 17.

The mishap took place in front of Shri Durgamba temple at Tadambail. Sandesh has been seriously injured while Vikram, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, died on the spot. They are said to have been on their way to Mangalore to book tickets to travel to Kanpur in a few days. Sandesh overtook a lorry at the said spot without realizing that a car was approaching from the opposite direction.

Vikram Pande's mortal remains were consigned to flames in the Suratkal crematorium on Sunday evening. He was a final year Mechanical Engineering student and the son of a police officer in Uttar Pradesh. Sandesh hails from Jeevan Bima Nagar, Bangalore.

A deathly pall prevailed at the venue of Incident-2006, a five-day cultural fest taking place at NITK. Saturday's events were said to have been postponed as a mark of respect to the departed student.

The poignancy of the situation compounded when a couple of Vikram's friends fainted on visiting and seeing his body in a private morgue in Suratkal. A close associate told this correspondent that Vikram was to finish his studies in a few months and he was already successful in campus recruitment, with prospects of a lucrative job.

Our special correspondent adds from Srinivasnagar:

Not less than four students of NITK have died in two-wheeler accidents in the vicinity during the past two years. People with traditional beliefs think that there has been a 'nagadosha' to the NITK campus. As a mark of reparation, 'nagapratishtha' and 'brahmakalashabhisheka' and other rites were recently held in the 'nagabana' within the campus.

Prof S S Murthy, during his tenure as director of NITK, had proposed a ban on possession of motorbikes by students, in view of the reported rash, hazardous and indicreet riding. Ever since Murthy's transfer, the proposal has remained in cold storage, informed sources at NITK told Daijiworld correspondent.