Tamil Nadu: Video journalist killed in hit-and-run involving luxury car, driver absconding

The accident came to light after the BMW was abandoned and the deceased Pratheep’s identity card was seen lying on the road. The driver is yet to be apprehended as he fled the spot.

Chennai: In a hit-and-run case, a 41-year-old video journalist working with a Telugu news channel, who also doubled up as a Rapido bike taxi rider, was killed by a speeding luxury car on the Maduravoyal-Tambaram elevated bypass road on Tuesday night.

Identified as O Pratheep Kumar with over 15 years of experience, the video journalist not just worked with TV10, a Telugu news channel, but also ran a YouTube channel, STV24/7, along with his friends. The YouTube channel is popular in Telugu and boasts of about six lakh subscribers.

Pratheep Kumar was returning home from Vadapalani, from where the YouTube channel was run, to Ambattur, where he lived after dropping a friend on his way. At around 11 pm on Tuesday, his bike was hit by a speeding luxury car, a BMW, with Pratheep and his bike thrown away nearly 100 meters from the site of the accident.

Police sources said his body was discovered from a lower section of the busy road that connects two suburbs of the city. Pratheep is survived by his wife and a five-year-old daughter, his colleagues told DH.

The accident came to light after the BMW was abandoned and Pratheep’s identity card was seen lying on the road. While the driver is yet to be apprehended as he fled the spot immediately after the incident, it is believed that the car came to a halt after automatic sensors were activated following the collision.

“We are on the lookout for the driver,” a police source told DH. Pratheep’s colleagues said the vehicle had a fancy number and alleged that the owner of the car was at the wheels when the incident took place and not his driver.

Pratheep hailed from a village near Nagari in Andhra Pradesh, a town bordering Tamil Nadu, and was living in Chennai for the past 16 years. His colleagues said Pratheep used Rapido occasionally to drop-off people on his way back home.

After a postmortem at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, Pratheep’s body was taken to his native village for last rites. The slain video journalist’s colleagues recalled him as a “nice man” who was passionate about journalism.

“He was a good man and he had friends across newspapers and media houses. He was very friendly with Tamil journalists. Off late, he was immersed in work with the YouTube channel which was getting popular. Even on Tuesday, he left for home after recording a video for the YouTube channel,” one of Pratheep’s colleagues told DH.