Mayor-KSRTC driver tiff: Crucial memory card missing, say Kerala Police

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police said on Wednesday that the memory card of the CCTV inside the KSRTC bus has gone missing, the driver of which was involved in an altercation with the city mayor Arya Rajendran, her husband Sachin Dev, a CPI(M) MLA, and other members of her family.

“We checked the DVR, but the 64 GB memory card is missing. This means we will not be able to retrieve the visuals from the three CCTV cameras placed inside the bus,” said the Kerala Police official who came to take the memory card.

Meanwhile, the driver of the bus, Yadu, a daily wages employee of the KSRTC said, “Now it is very clear who is right and who is wrong.”

“They (Mayor and her family) know they are on the wrong side and hence the pro-party workers (attached to the party) might have taken it. After being released after almost 12 hours in the police station on Monday morning I reached the bus depot. I checked the CCTV and DVR, and everything was functional and now if it has gone missing, then all can comprehend who is behind this foul play,” said Yadu.

M. Vincent, the Congress MLA and office-bearer of the Congress-backed TDF (trade union of KSRTC) said, “This incident happened on Sunday night and despite this issue snowballing into a controversy, the police came only on Wednesday to retrieve the memory card. When they came, it had disappeared. We also heard the news that one of the passengers inside the bus was threatened when he was recording the spat that was taking place and those with the Mayor forcibly deleted the recording. I have complained to the Police Commissioner on why the complaint of Yadu is yet to be taken by the police, while the complaint of the Mayor was taken and action was taken against Yadu,” said Vincent.

The incident took place at around 10 p.m. on Sunday in the heart of the capital city.

Rajendran on Monday said they reacted against the driver not only because he was driving dangerously and on a few occasions, almost hit their vehicle, but also made an obscene gesture at them. However, she said that they did not intercept the bus at a traffic signal.