Shaji Purushothaman, prime suspect in the >Mercedes accident case , was taken into police custody on Wednesday for further questioning.
A day after >Shaji’s arrest on June 13 , the city police had sought his custody for five days to find out who had helped him evade arrest in the days following the May 23 accident. The matter had been posted for hearing on Wednesday.
In a petition filed at the magistrate court in Egmore, a senior police officer said Shaji had been brought to the city from Kochi on June 13, and had been remanded to judicial custody that same night. The police had therefore not had their initial interrogation period of 24 hours. Questioning Shaji would help unearth material evidence in the case, the petition stated.
On the magistrate’s orders, the police took Shaji into custody around 4.45 p.m. and went to the Chintadripet police station.
Shaji will be in police custody only for a day and will then be sent back to prison after being produced in court around 3.30 p.m. on Thursday. His advocates will be allowed to meet him at 7.30 a.m. for a short while, police said.
The accident on May 23 in Egmore killed a >13-year-old boy and injured four others..