Reels Wiped, 3 Fled: Victim's Family Alleges Cover-Up In Kerala Judge Son's Mercedes Crash

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Police have added stringent provisions including Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) to the first information report (FIR) after the 17-year-old son of a serving judge rammed his father's Mercedes-Benz into a scooter in Kochi, killing a street food vendor on the spot.Following the accident, the teenager claimed he had taken the vehicle out for the "first time" and had learned how to drive by watching YouTube videos.Independent checks of the teenager's social media presence and accounts from police sources contradicted the claim of a novice driver testing a vehicle for the first time. Prior to the crash, the minor operated a public Instagram handle with over 2,500 followers where he regularly posted driving reels.Sources said several videos showed him clocking speeds of up to 200 kmph in the same Mercedes-Benz. Within hours of the Sunday morning crash, all posts on the handle were deleted and the Instagram account was switched to private.The minor, who the police said was driving at 104 kmph when the crash occurred at around 2.20 am on Sunday, was detained and released on bail within minutes, sparking protests from the victim's family over an alleged cover-up and tampering with digital evidence.A sole breadwinner of his family, the man was returning home after finishing work at his small street food joint which he had run for 30 years to feed his family and pay for the education of his three children, when the luxury sedan struck his two-wheeler on his regular route back home.The victim's daughter and her brother alleged the judge and the police acted in concert to shield the minor and suppress the presence of three other passengers in the car at the time of impact."One eyewitness was there. He's afraid of the judge and the police so he's not coming in front of the media and police," the victim's child told NDTV at their home in Kochi. "He secretly told us because he was a good friend of our father. He said that in the car there were four people and after hitting, three ran away and a Fortuner came."The daughter asked how the teenager was granted bail twice in rapid succession - first at the police station after his judge father arrived within 45 minutes of the crash, and again before a magistrate following the family's late-night protest.When the grieving family confronted the judge over how the underage boy gained access to the car keys, the father allegedly brushed them off, telling them, "Don't question me about all of this.""He's a criminal too. He's telling a lie," she told NDTV, demanding that the judge, being the registered owner of the Mercedes-Benz, should be named as an accused in the FIR. "The judge claims his son drove the vehicle for the first time. If he is telling such lies, what can the common people expect?"The police inaction has left a deep scar on her, a former National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadet who had aspired to join the police force. "No, I hate that uniform now, seriously," she said, standing inside the small house his father had built over three decades of hard work.Senior police officers are yet to hold a press briefing to address the deleted social media reels or the eyewitness claims regarding the three other occupants who allegedly fled the spot.The victim's children said they are speaking with their relatives on their next legal steps including sending a representation to the chief minister for justice."He (the judge) knows what a loophole is and everything, so he will go to any extent to save his son," the daughter said. "We will also go to any extent to get justice for our father. No matter how he tries to hide the truth, we will find out."