THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The efforts of the Crime Branch team probing the accident case involving IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman to obtain vital crash data from the car that mowed down Siraj journalist KM Basheer has come a cropper.
The crash data recovery experts deployed by the car company from Pune failed to submit their report citing that they could not retrieve the speed factor from the Event Data Recorder of the car. Following this, the sleuths approached the Thiruvananthapuram office of the car company, which provided it with a report that had no mention of parameters such as engine speed, vehicle speed and braking, said Crime Branch sources.
With the cops failing to garner video footage from CCTVs depicting the journey of the IAS officer from Kowdiyar to Museum,the crash data could have given a clearer picture of what transpired in the wee hours of August 3,when the bike-borne scribe was mowed down by the car near the Public Office. Crime Branch sources had said they were expecting crash details from the data retrieving team to reach a conclusion on whether the car was speeding.
“The experts had conveyed that they failed to ascertain the speed at which the car was moving. That has dampened our spirits as we had pinned our hopes on their reports,” said an officer, who is part of the probe.