The additional district judge in the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal in Keralam, whose 17-year-old son rammed his luxury vehicle into a scooter and killed the rider last month, was booked under fresh charges of attempting to destroy evidence on Monday, police said.
Kochi city police commissioner R Nishanthini confirmed the receipt of the complaint. There was no immediate comment from the police on the allegation pertaining to the deletion of the photograph till the time of filing this report. The police have moved a special court seeking cancellation of the minor’s bail. The case is currently being probed by the Ernakulam district crime branch wing of the police.
The police said the judge was later booked on charges of attempting to destroy evidence in the case. He told the court he was asleep at the time of the incident and was not aware his son had taken the vehicle from the house.
The judge was earlier booked on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, along with rash and negligent driving, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and under provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act. The judge was granted interim protection from arrest by the Kerala High Court on Thursday. The accused judge was questioned for several hours on Wednesday and Thursday at the Police Club in Aluva.
The complaint also alleged the judge visited Cheranalloor police station after the accident and forced an officer to delete a photograph of his son clicked by a member of the victim’s family. The victim, a resident of Manjali who ran a street food cart in Chittor area, was thrown into the air and died on the spot. A Mercedes-Benz driven by the judge’s minor son hit the two-wheeler near Cheranalloor at around 2.30am on October 25.
The family of the victim, Jayabalakrishnan, on Sunday registered a fresh complaint, alleging the minor’s father spent a lot of time at the accident site in a bid to destroy the evidence in the case, according to Cheranalloor police.
