THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city police will soon file a chargesheet against KSRTC driver H L Yedu in connection with Mayor Arya Rajendran’s complaint that he made lewd gestures at her during the road rage incident. Having been investigating the case for the past 10 days, the police will file the chargesheet against the driver within a week, a senior cop said. The police have collected circumstantial evidence, including CCTV footage, that buttress the allegation raised against the driver, the officer said.
According to the police, the visuals collected from four private CCTV cameras from Pattom to PMG have revealed that the bus was dangerously tailgating the car in which the mayor and her family were travelling. From the footage, it was assessed that it was possible for the women passengers, including the mayor, sitting in the rear seat of the car to see the gestures of the driver, the officer said.
The officer also claimed the police had collected the audio clip where the mayor is heard questioning the driver over his lewd gesture and evading it without giving a prompt reply. The police will conduct a live simulation of the whole episode to understand the finer aspects of the case. “The chargesheet will be filed after the simulation,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, the Cantonment police have summoned High Court lawyer Baiju Noel Rosario and Yedu to record their statements on Wednesday. It was on Baiju’s complaint that the police first registered a case against the mayor and her husband K M Sachin Dev, MLA. Yedu has been summoned both as an accused as well as a complainant. The statements of the mayor and the MLA would be recorded in the subsequent days.
Police sources said they will take a decision on altering the FIRs after recording the statements of the lawyer and Yedu. Since two FIRs cannot be registered on one incident, the police will seek legal opinion before revoking certain IPC sections from the FIRs.
“Certain IPC sections were included in the FIRs on the basis of the allegations levelled by the complainants. But they were found to be wrong during the subsequent probe. For example, in the FIR registered on the complaint of the lawyer, a section for trespassing into the bus has been included. Since a KSRTC bus is a public place, the trespassing charge won’t stand,” a source said.
