Police ‘plug’ bus hole; accused go scot-free

CHENNAI: All accused, including the Correspondent of Zion Matriculation HSS, were on Wednesday declared not guilty by a Chengalpattu court in connection with the death of Class-2 student, S Sruthi, who allegedly fell through a gaping hole on the floor of the school bus on July 25, 2012, while the vehicle was in motion.

Chennai Police’s Mount traffic Investigation wing could not prove there was a hole and that the stakeholders’ negligence led to the death of the 7-year-old.

While several witnesses — parents of other students — turned hostile, jolting the prosecution case, there were also instances of the police’s own undoing, which worked against them in court.

One of the constables deposed that he took photographs of the hole in the bus after the accident on his mobile phone and transferred the images to special sub-inspector Rajendran through Bluetooth for taking prints before it was burnt down by a mob.

During cross-examination, constable Deivasigamani deposed that the model of phone he had was Nokia 3100, which the court noted, did not have a camera facility.

Traffic Inspector Venkatesan, who submitted that he took photographs of the hole, during cross-examination said he did not take any.

Investigating Officer, Inspector S Dhinakaran did not produce the phone in which the photographs were allegedly taken while his sub-ordinates gave contradictory statements.

‘Prosecution did not prove school knew about hole in bus’

“There is no single piece of evidence to prove that the bus had a hole on the floor,” K Kayathri, additional district judge, Chengalpattu, noted.

Likewise, the prosecution has not proved that prior to the occurrence, the school and the accused were informed about the gaping hole on the floor inside the bus.

The Investigating Officer further failed to examine the RTOs to prove the ownership of the bus, the court noted.

“The correspondent of Zion school, N Vijayan, is not the owner of the bus and he was falsely implicated by the police,” the court observed.

Of the eight suspects, the case against one person, a minor, who worked as a cleaner on the bus, was transferred to the juvenile justice board.

After perusing the submissions from the prosecution, Additional District and Sessions Judge, K Kayathri held that the other suspect, MB Seeman, driver of the bus; N Vijayan, correspondent; N Paulraj, administrative officer; K Pragasam, mechanic; P Rajasekaran, Motor vehicle Inspector; N Ravi and Yogesh Silvera were all found not guilty.

The prosecution contended that Ravi, the brother of the correspondent, concealed the RC book of the vehicle and had fabricated a lease agreement with Yogesh Silvera as if he maintained the school buses.