Swift police action saved the life of a 23-year-old school van driver. The suspects tried to bury the driver alive in a graveyard in Muniswamappa Palya over a road rage incident on Friday night.



The Kumaraswamy Layout police arrested Santu, Jeeva, Mutthu and Arjun while the Talaghattapura police arrested the fifth suspect in connection with a robbery case.

The police said Praveen was driving the school van to his owner's house after dropping schoolchildren.

Near ISRO Layout, one of the bikes the suspects were riding collided with the van. Praveen abused them and told them to follow traffic rules.

Later, the group followed Praveen, abducted him and took him to the graveyard in Muniswamappa Palya, where one of the accused family is the caretaker.

They bate Praveen and were also digging a grave to bury him alive.

Meanwhile, Kenchegowda, the owner of the van, called Praveen during the fight and overheard the conversation of suspects Muthu and Santu taking Praveen to their place.

He alerted the KS Layout police.

The police swung into action and rushed to the spot. But they found only the abandoned van. They later started tracking his mobile phone. They also searched isolated and deserted places and graveyards around the area. Within a one-and-a-half hour of the search, police found the gang and zeroed on them, just minutes before Praveen could be buried alive.

Inspector V M Guruprasad, who led the search operation said: "It was luck that we could rescue Praveen before he could be buried alive. Apart from saving him, we also prevented the gang from committing a heinous crime, Guruprasad said.

The four suspects were taken into custody to check their criminal background.

However, the police left out a minor boy with a stern warning as he had just supplied alcohol to the accused.