Thiruvananthapuram: CCTVs were working during road rage

Thiruvananthapuram: The police claim that the CCTVs were not working during the wee hours of August 3 when an accident involving bureaucrat Shriram Venkataraman killed journalist K. M. Basheer has proved to be wrong.

As per its records, on the day, two cameras on the Raj Bhavan stretch and four on the museum stretch were working, giving credence to the suspicion of the police weakening the case.

Documents procured under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by Raju Vazhakkala from the city police commissioner's office reveals the surveillance cameras were working, and the police had its footage.

The speeding car, allegedly drunk-driven by the suspended officer, had fatally knocked down Mr Basheer, the bureau chief of Malayalam daily Siraj.

Following the accident, police had said that none of the CCTV cameras in the area were functioning. Some of them are fixed cameras.

There are 233 cameras set up in the capital city with 144 among them being functional.

These CCTV cameras might have captured several crucial moments related to the accident, but the police did not collect them, contrary to the public statements of the police, including Sanjaykumar Guridin, who was the commissioner-in-charge at the time.

Earlier, visuals the nearby CCTVs captured had proved that the police had deliberately delayed the registration of the FIR.

As per the CCTV visuals available at the public office compound, the accident happened at 1.01:42 a.m. The police reached the spot at 1.02.41 a.m that is within 59 minutes. However, the FIR was registered only at 7.17 a.m. after six hours.

But the visuals of the CCTV can be stored in the server of the control room only for 30 days, said sources, because, large number of visuals, mostly about traffic violations, crowd the server daily.

Meanwhile, Sheen Tharayil, assistant commissioner-narcotic cell, has been replaced as the head of the special investigation team. A.A. Shanavas, SP, crime branch, is the new head.