Days after registering a case against them for causing the death of 17-year-old Apheel Johnson through negligence, the Pala police here on Monday recorded the arrest of three of the four organisers of the Junior Athletic Meet in Pala.
The arrested were identified as Muhammad Kasim, T.D. Martin, and K.V. Joseph. While Kasim had been refereeing the throw events, Martin had been monitoring the events as a judge. Joseph, meanwhile, had been tasked with giving signals for the event. They were later released on a station bail.
K. Subash, Deputy Police Superintendent of Pala, said the investigation clearly pointed to a lapse on the part of these officials in organising more than one standard throwing event in the same venue at the same time. “In the opinion of the experts that we consulted with, the accident could have been averted had one of them been careful on the field,” said the official.
Expert team
The investigation by a three-member expert team appointed by the State government too had found fault with the simultaneous conduct of the throwing events at the athletic meet and held the officials responsible for Apheel’s death.
Having collected statements including that of the accused, the police are now awaiting the results of a scientific examination of the hammer involved in the accident from the Forensic Science Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram. “The probe is nearly over. We are awaiting scientific evidence for preparing the chargesheet,” the official said.
Apheel, a Plus One student, was volunteering in the athletic meet when a flying hammer weighing 3 kg, thrown by one of the participants, hit his head.
