Kochi Benz crash: ‘Deleting pictures from phone was wrong’, says report detailing police lapses

Kochi: The suspension order against police officers responsible for lapses regarding the Cheranalloor accident has been released. The report, which enumerates the officers' failures, highlights that there was a failure to invoke Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) from the outset. Releasing a minor on station bail was also noted as a major lapse in the detailed report made public on Wednesday.

Cheranalloor Circle Inspector (CI) K S Shyamkumar, Station House Officer (SHO) and Sub-Inspector (SI) V S Vishwajith, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) K T Manoj and Senior Civil Police Officer (CPO) Arun Joshi were suspended recently.

The suspensions were ordered after Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) P Vijayan inspected the site in Kochi. A comprehensive report incorporating CCTV footage, digital evidence, errors in the First Information Report (FIR) and statements from officers and family members was submitted to the Director General of Police (DGP).

Releasing the minor on station bail was cited as a grave error. The police forcibly deleted footage of the accident from the complainant's phone. In the suspension order, the DGP stated that deleting photos under the pretext of protecting the minor's identity was wrong, as the police have no authority to do so.

The failures in the investigation tarnished the dignity of the police force. The order noted that it was illegal for a minor to drive on public roads at night and that he had attempted to abscond without assisting the accident victim.

An examination of the case diary revealed sufficient grounds to charge Section 105 of the BNS during the initial stages. Despite the driver being a minor ineligible for a driving licence, he drove a car on public roads at night. After the collision, he fled the scene without helping the injured person. The police were aware of these facts at the time of registering the case. Both SHO Vishwajith and CI Shyamkumar were present at the station when the FIR was registered. A lack of diligence in applying the appropriate legal provisions enabled the juvenile in conflict with the law to obtain station bail, the report added.

CCTV footage from the police station confirmed that officers K T Manoj  and Arun Joshi took the phone of the complainant, Ananthakrishnan, and forced him to delete the photos. This action cannot be justified in the name of protecting the minor's identity.

Under Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, only the disclosure of a child's identity in the media is prohibited. Otherwise, police officers possess no authority to force an individual to delete photos from their phone in the presence of someone associated with the child. The order concluded that the officers' actions constituted gross dereliction of duty and damaged the public image of the police.

Meanwhile, the additional sessions judge who owns the car, which was driven by his minor son at the time of the fatal crash, was interrogated by the Crime Branch earlier on the day.