The city police have sought the assistance of engineers from Mercedes-Benz, Mumbai, to inspect the car involved in the May 23 accident that left a boy dead and a girl seriously injured.
Investigators have requested experts from the car company to certify the velocity at the time of impact, the police said on Saturday. The police have already obtained the car’s fitness certificate from the Motor Vehicles Inspector.
On the night of the accident, two of the passengers, Shaji Purushothaman and R.M. Kumar, were taken to the Government Royapettah Hospital for medical examination. The duo was found to be drunk. They were then taken to the police station from where Shaji was allowed to go despite instructions from senior police officers that he should be detained for interrogation, sources said.
In a bid to save Shaji, son of industrialist M.P. Purushothaman of Empee Group, Kumar claimed he was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident.
However, investigation proved his claims were false.
“When asked to drive a Mercedes, he could not even start the vehicle. A former autorickshaw driver, Kumar, could hardly drive a Tata Indica or an Ambassador. We videographed the whole thing in the presence of representatives from Mercedes,” a police officer said.
While a police inspector was placed under suspension for dereliction of duty in connection with the case, an enquiry is on to ascertain why a Lookout Circular (LOC) was not issued immediately after Shaji went missing.
This could have prevented him from escaping the country, the sources said.
