Kochi: The father of the 17-year-old accused of killing a scooterist with a Mercedes-Benz in Cheranalloor was himself arraigned as an accused on Monday.
The Additional District Judge, posted in Irinjalakkuda in Thrissur district, has been booked under Section 199A of the Motor Vehicles Act. The provision says that where an offence has been committed by a juvenile, the guardian of the juvenile or the owner of the vehicle "shall be deemed guilty" and is liable to be proceeded against and punished. He is the registered owner of the car.
"Steps are now being taken in compliance with the Supreme Court guidelines that apply when a judge is booked. We will have to intimate the district judiciary and the High Court," District Police Chief (Kochi City) S. Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar said.
The crash happened at about 2.20 am on Sunday at Maraparambu on Container Road in Cheranalloor. Jayabalakrishnan, 55, of South Chittoor, who ran a roadside eatery for 30 years and was the sole earner for a family of five, was riding home after shutting his stall when the car, travelling in the same direction, hit the scooter from behind. He died on the spot.
Police first registered a case under Section 106(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, for causing death by negligence, and released the teenager on station bail under Section 8 of the Juvenile Justice Act. Protests began outside Cheranalloor police station. The victim's son and daughter, joined by activists, demanded that the accused be taken into custody and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board. The daughter fainted during the protest and was taken to hospital.
Senior officers intervened, and police added Section 105 of the BNS, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, saying the preliminary probe showed the car was being driven at high speed and had been driven that way before. Late at night, police went to the judge's residence, took the boy into custody and produced him before the board, which granted bail citing the absence of previous criminal antecedents.
On Monday, the Kerala High Court allowed police to register a case against the sitting judge. An FIR cannot be filed directly against a serving judicial officer without a written submission to the Registrar General of the High Court. A Special Investigation Team has also been constituted to probe the family's allegations.
Those allegations are serious. The victim's children say three other occupants were in the car and fled the spot. They also question the boy's claim that he had taken the vehicle out for the first time and had learnt to drive from YouTube videos, pointing to an Instagram account with over 2,500 followers that carried driving reels, all of which were deleted within hours of the crash. Police said the car was doing 104 kmph.
The teenager has not been named. All the allegations are yet to be tested in court. The crash comes less than three weeks after another fatal accident in Kochi on October 11, in which a Mini Cooper allegedly driven at high speed by a 19-year-old hit a scooter, killing three young men.