Businessman’s son tries to block lorry near Mandya and opens fire, arrested with friends

MANDYA: The son of an influential person, along with his gang, opened fire on a truck on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway in the early hours on Thursday. Fortunately, the driver narrowly escaped with his life.

Late on Thursday night, the accused Rohan Gowda, Umar, Shashank, Afan, Nithin, Mohammed Abubakar, and Sachin were arrested, and the gun used to fire at the truck and a Toyota Fortuner SUV were seized.

Around 4.50 am on Thursday, the group of youths targeted the driver of a truck traveling on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway and fired shots near Amravati Hotel on the outskirts of Mandya city. The truck was transporting medicine to Mandya and Mysuru.

Terrified, the driver Shankar unloaded the goods in Mandya and proceeded to Mysuru. As this matter spread by word of mouth, police summoned driver Shankar, took his complaint, and registered a case.

After finishing a friend’s birthday party at a resort, Rohan Gowda and his friends were returning to Mandya in a drunken state. When taking the service road from the express highway, they honked, but the truck driver didn’t give way, so they fired at him, police said. The accused reportedly said they fired for fun while intoxicated.

Mandya SP Dr Shobharani said the gun has been sent to FSL for now. After committing the act, Rohan had removed his car’s number plate, which has raised many suspicions. After the incident, driver Shankar parked the truck (KA-01-AB-1300) in front of his house in Gokulam in Mysuru and disappeared. Every day, Shankar used to transport medicines in the truck from Bengaluru to Mysuru.