With the police unable to provide any concrete information on Shaji Purushothaman’s whereabouts, a raft of rumours has been doing the rounds for the last two days.
On Sunday, the main suspect in the May 23 Mercedes accident case was expected to fly into Chennai from Bangkok, which led to an almost day-long congregation of mediapersons at the airport. The speculation that he would arrive in Bangalore also gained strength during the course of the day.
On Monday morning, it was rumoured that Shaji was being brought to Anna Nagar traffic investigation office, where his father M. P. Purushothaman was questioned last week.
In the afternoon, he was believed to have surrendered in the Egmore court opposite Empee Group’s corporate office.
At 5.30 p.m., the scene shifted to Mumbai, with Shaji said to have arrived at Mumbai International Airport.
Such reports kept media persons on their toes, and even misled the police. “We checked with the foreigners’ regional registration office in Mumbai and found the claim baseless,” said a senior police official.
Police sources claimed Shaji’s family had first assured them he would surrender on Saturday, but later pushed it to Monday. Though the police were in touch with immigration officials, there was no sign of Shaji even on Monday.
With the uncertainty over Shaji’s whereabouts persisting, Commissioner of Police S. George held a discussion with his team on the case, on Monday.
Meanwhile, M. P. Purushothaman, founder-chairman of Empee Group, filed a petition in the High Court on Monday evening to restrain the police from harassing his employees, relatives and domestic help under the guise of investigation.
The police have been looking for Shaji ever since it was alleged that he was at the wheel of the Mercedes that ran amok among people sleeping near a pavement in Egmore on May 23, killing a boy and seriously injuring a girl.
The police claim the scion of the Empee Group flew out of the country on May 25 to Bangkok from Bangalore via Colombo.
