Srinivas could have been booked, sent to jail, punished with imprisonment of up to two years and lost whatever money he had saved while working as a tipper driver.
He didn’t undergo any of this traumatic experience despite “crushing to death a pedestrian under the wheels of his tipper”.
The 31-year-old driver didn’t escape by greasing someone’s palm, but a surveillance camera saved him from becoming a scapegoat!
A month ago, he was passing by ECIL rotary in Kushaiguda driving the sand-laden tipper around 8.30 a.m. when an unidentified man came under the front wheels.
As the front wheel went over the stranger, he slammed the brakes and reversed the lorry.
He jumped out of the driver’s seat only to see the pedestrian crushed to death. A scared Srinivas fled the spot, leaving the tipper. “The accident occurred right in front of police station and I was inside then.
I rushed out, shifted the tipper and sent the body for autopsy,” Kushaiguda Sub-Inspector S. Sudheer Krishna recalled on Monday.
As per procedure, a case of rash and negligent act resulting in death under section 304-A of Indian Penal Code was registered. Family members of the victim, who was later identified as B. Bhupathi Rao, 47, lodged a complaint accusing the tipper driver of killing him in road accident.
No eyewitnesses
There were no eyewitnesses and investigators believed it was an open-and-shut case of a routine road accident. “But I remembered, there were surveillance cameras at the junction and collected the video footage to ascertain how exactly the accident occurred,” the SI said.
Video images
The video clip blew their belief that it was an accident. “We were shocked to see the victim standing near a roadside tree, suddenly coming onto the road and diving in front of the tipper,” Mr. Sudheer explained.
With the clear video images confirming that it was a suicide, the police had to change the section of law from 304-A to 306 (suicide) of IPC.
Case closed
Since the victim died, the police had closed the case.
“This video clip once again confirmed how surveillance cameras are helpful in detecting offences –be road accidents or other serious crimes like burglaries,” said Malkajgiri DCP E. Ramachandra Reddy.
‘The video clip once again confirmed how surveillance cameras are helpful in detecting offences’
