The ‘killer Audi’ case is taking curious turns as Police Commissioner B G Jyothiprakash Mirji on Tuesday placed Ashoknagar traffic inspector Ratnakar under suspension for the delay in apprehending the accused.
The accident took place early on Sunday morning. But the Ashoknagar police waited for the accused student’s father to turn up at the police station the next day.
“There were enough clues for the inspector to trace the owner of the vehicle and zero in on the driver. The accident was captured on CCTV, two mobile phones were found in the car along with a few documents. The inspector did not act swiftly to apprehend the accused, and this led to a delay in conducting a medical examination,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M A Saleem said.
The medical examination would have helped the police to ascertain if the driver was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident.
An Ashoknagar police source said that the mobile phones found in the car were password-locked and could not be opened in one day. Also, the accused student’s father Lokesh Reddy had turned up at the police station on Monday morning along with a driver saying that it was the latter who drove the car.
The source pointed out that they had refused to accept this since they had an eye witness in the case - an autorickshaw driver, who shifted the injured to the hospital.
“The other autorickshaw driver clearly stated that the driver of the car was more than 6 feet tall. The driver Lokesh Reddy brought did not match the description,” a police officer contended.
A senior traffic police official said that the case was transferred to the Ashoknagar Law & Order police station since traffic police do not have powers to investigate offenses under IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). “It is the Law & Order police who proceed with cases on suspected influence of alcohol at the time of accident,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the condition of Karthik (25) and Unis Ali, the auto driver, who were injured in the accident and are recovering in Bowring Hospital, is stable. Karthik is yet to gain consciousness, while Ali is responding to treatment.
Speaking to Express, Inspector Ratnakar said, “I have done my duty as best as I could. First of all, I was not informed about the incident as our sub-inspector Anjappa was busy shifting the injured from Bowring Hospital to NIMHANS. He told me about it only around 5.15 am. I rushed to the spot within 15 minutes and inspected the accident spot.
“I was unable to access the mobile phones as they were password protected. Next day, the accused surrendered when we were getting statements from the victims,” the inspector said.
Traffic police say that the much hyped online entry of vehicles’ RC Book and license holder’s details is not being updated.
The traffic police have access to both RC Book details and license holder’s details online, with the last 5 digits of the chassis number online.
A senior police official said that RTOs take 10-15 days time to update details about the RC Book and license details online.
“Barring 2 RTOs, Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwarinagar, all other RTOs take at least 15 days time to update the entries online,” an official said.
The Audi involved in the Saturday night accident was bought on May 22 on a temporary registration and no information was available online,’’ the official added.