The Thiruvananthapuram City police on Saturday registered a case against Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran, K.M. Sachin Dev, MLA, and three others in connection with their confrontation with Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) empanelled driver H.L. Yadhu.
A first information report (FIR) was registered on the basis of a complaint by Baiju Noel, a Kochi-based advocate, during the late hours of the day. The five accused persons have been booked under bailable provisions including Sections 141 (unlawful assembly), 268 (public nuisance), 283 (causing obstruction to a person in a public place) and 341 (wrongful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 201 (causing obstruction to free flow of traffic) of the Motor Vehicle Act.
The development also came shortly after Mr. Yadhu moved the Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate Court III, seeking a case be registered against the five persons. The complainant accused the Cantonment police of refusing to register a case on his complaint. The court accepted the petition and is slated to consider on Monday.
Dismissing allegations of a cover-up in favour of the Mayor in the case, the Thiruvananthapuram City police maintained that a detailed inquiry had been made into the Nemom native’s complaint without any prejudice.
District Police Chief (Thiruvananthapuram City) C.H. Nagaraju termed the driver a habitual offender, who has two pending cases relating to an accident and another instance of reckless driving, in addition to the one registered on the basis of the Mayor’s complaint.
“Manipulative nature”
The law enforcers suspect Mr. Yadhu’s efforts to initiate legal proceedings akin to a “modus operandi” that he purportedly orchestrated in cases registered against him in the past.
The Nemom police had registered three cases, all of which were subsequently withdrawn, after the accused filed counter-complaints against the petitioners.
“He had been accused of flashing at a woman, misbehaving with a friend’s wife and assaulting a differently abled man at the Government Taluk Hospital in Nemom in these cases. The cases were settled after the parties reached compromises,” Mr. Nagaraju said.
The senior officer also “strongly suspected” Mr. Yadhu’s role in the disappearance of the memory card from the dashboard camera in the KSRTC bus. The card was apparently found to be missing, shortly after the driver had approached the police on April 30, seeking steps to examine the camera visuals.
The police have collected the statements of the five passengers who travelled in the car including the Mayor and her husband, K.M. Sachin Dev, MLA; the conductor Subin, and all transport officers involved. Efforts are underway to record the statements of the passengers, who were in the bus at the time of the incident.
Meanwhile, Mr. Yadhu accused the conductor of having provided a false statement to the police. Mr. Subin had told the police that Mr. Sachin Dev had entered the bus, but had not asked any of the passengers to disembark as alleged by Mr. Yadhu.
The driver, however, said the conductor is a Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) who supported the MLA. He had even offered his seat to the legislator, Mr. Yadhu claimed.
