- Kochi Police Commissioner removed from post.
- Allegations of mishandling judge's son accident.
- Case compared to Pune Porsche incident.
Kochi police commissioner Kaliraj Mahesh has been removed from his post over a row of alleged mishandling of a road accident case involving the 17-year-old son of an additional district judge. Mahesh has been replaced by R Nishanthini.
The development comes as the controversy over alleged police lapses in the Mercedes case and demands for accountability. The 17-year-old who drove a Mercedes-Benz had rammed a scooty, killing a 55-year-old man. The victim has been identified as Jayabalakrishnan.The victim’s family claimed there has been a conspiracy to compromise the investigation.
What’s the allegation?
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The teenager was a regular driver and had taken the 2012 turbo diesel model car out late at night to shoot a social media reel showing him driving at high speed, the police have said. The judge purportedly got the footage deleted from his son's phone. Cops also found the footage from his mobile phone showing the car travelling at high speed shortly before the accident.
Apart from this, the damaged Mercedez in the police station and the damaged scooter that the street food vendor drove indicated the impact speed would have been very high.
The incident has gained massive attention after the victim's family alleged attempts by the teenager's influential father to weaken the case. The handling of the case triggered protests after the teenager was initially charged under provisions relating to rash driving and causing death by negligence, and later released on station bail.
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The victim's family has approached the high court and the probe has been handed over to the Crime Branch.
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The Kochi case is similar to the incident involving a minor in Pune in May 2024 when a 17-year-old boy at the wheel of a speeding Porsche hit a bike, killing a man and a woman. In that incident, the minor driving an unregistered Porsche Taycan at roughly 200 km/h under the influence of alcohol collided with a motorcycle, killing two IT professionals, Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta
In that case too the minor was out on bail in just 15 hours. The son of a prominent Pune realtor, the teen was granted bail after he was made to write an essay on accidents and advised to take treatment for his drinking habit.