A CCTV footage that surfaced online on Saturday shed light on the possibility of a gruesome murder of a 15-year-old boy at Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram. A Class 10 student, Adi Shekhar (15), son of Arun Kumar and Deepa, Poovachal, had died on August 30 after being hit by a car driven by a distant relative of the student.
Though the Kattakada police had registered a case on charges of culpable homicide, the CCTV footage retrieved by the police from a neighbouring building has now given vital clues suggesting that the accident was a pre-meditated one. The accidental death occurred in front of Sri Bhadhrakali temple in Pulingode in the evening. When Adi Shekhar was trying to get on his bicycle after playing at a nearby ground, he was hit by his relative’s car from behind. The boy had then died on the spot.
Soon after the accident, the accused Priyaranjan, 41, of Bhoomika House, Poovachal, had gone into hiding, deserting his car on the wayside. The footage that has now surfaced shows that the car slowly turned on when the student mounted the bicycle and then in a sudden burst of acceleration it hit the student from behind. Though there was another child close to him, he got the time to jump to safety. Seeing the footage, the relatives of the victim have approached the police and the police have now intensified the search for the accused.
According to the footage, the accused seems to have intentionally caused the accident. However, details like whether it was a deliberate move and what was the trigger for the incident could be ascertained only after the interrogation of the accused, said the police. The relatives alleged that the student dared to question him a few months back when the accused tried to urinate near the temple compound wall. Other than this, there was no animosity between them or between the families of the two. Arun Kumar, is a Poovachal government school teacher while his wife Deepa is a Secretariat Assistant. Adi Shekhar is a class 10 student of Chinmaya Mission School, Kattakkada.
