Four police officers have been suspended over alleged lapses in handling the Cheranelloor crash case in Kochi, in which a 17-year-old allegedly driving a Mercedes-Benz hit a scooter and killed 55-year-old Jayabalakrishnan. The investigation has also been transferred to the crime branch amid scrutiny of the initial police charges and the granting of station bail to the juvenile.
Kerala home minister Ramesh Chennithala announced the suspensions in the state assembly on Tuesday. The officers are Cheranelloor station house officer and sub-inspector Viswajith V S, circle inspector Syam Kumar K S, grade assistant sub-inspector Manoj K T and senior civil police officer Arun Joshy.
According to the minister, the police response involved serious lapses. He said he had personally reprimanded the director general of police after learning that the first information report did not initially include the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The teenager was initially booked for rash driving and causing death by negligence before the additional charge was included late on Sunday night.
The changes followed protests by Jayabalakrishnan’s children at the police station and intervention by the home minister. The victim, who ran a roadside eatery, was reportedly travelling home when the crash occurred at about 2.20 am. The accident took place at Maraparambu on Container Road, an important road corridor in the Kochi area.
The teenager was later produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, which granted him bail. The crime branch is now handling the investigation. ADGP (law and order) P Vijayan led a team that visited the accident site and the victim’s family in Kochi on Tuesday. The team also examined CCTV footage to verify allegations concerning the conduct of officers at Cheranelloor police station.
Vijayan said police had approached the court seeking cancellation of the juvenile’s bail. Asked whether the teenager’s father, an additional district judge, could be arrested, he said the matter involved legal formalities, including the required permission from the judiciary. The judge has been booked under provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act relating to offences involving a juvenile driver.
The case has drawn attention not only because of the fatal collision but also because of the sequence of police and legal action that followed it. The victim’s family had demanded the judge’s arrest and suspension, along with action against the officers accused of lapses. The family staged a protest at the station on Monday night and called it off after the home minister spoke to them. They had warned that the protest would resume if their demands were not addressed by 4 pm on Tuesday.
Vijayan said the family’s genuine demands would be given priority. He also held discussions lasting nearly two hours with senior Kochi city police officers, including commissioner Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar. The inquiry team, which included an additional inspector general and circle inspectors who travelled from Thiruvananthapuram, is conducting a detailed examination of the case.
Both Chennithala and Vijayan said the law would take its course irrespective of the people involved. The immediate next steps are the crime branch investigation, the court’s consideration of the bail-cancellation request and the departmental proceedings against the four suspended officers.
