The daughter of a 55-year-old street food vendor killed in a Mercedes-Benz accident in Kochi’s Cheranalloor has expressed anguish over the Kerala High Court’s decision to grant anticipatory bail to the judge whose minor son was allegedly behind the wheels of a car involved in the crash.
“There is no scope for custodial interrogation. Necessarily, he has to be granted protection. He is a judicial officer, and he will cooperate. The interim relief comes a day after the judge, who presides over a Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, was questioned for several hours by Crime Branch officers at the Aluva Police Club.
For four hours, the police had interrogated him,” justice Edappagath said. He was asked to appear again for questioning on Thursday.
The family has now decided to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court’s order. The development comes after the Kerala High Court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to the Kochi judge booked under the Motor Vehicles Act after his 17-year-old son allegedly drove a Mercedes-Benz into a scooter, killing 55-year-old Jaibalakrishnan in Kochi.
Bhadra Keerthi, daughter of street food vendor Jaibalakrishnan, reportedly said the verdict came just a day before the completion of her father’s funeral rites, at a time when the family was hoping for some measure of justice. “This judgment is a stab in my chest,” she told NDTV. A single-judge bench of Justice Kauser Edappagath said investigators had already questioned the judicial officer for four hours, and the judge would cooperate with the probe.
