A Kerala man who was alleged to have murdered a 15-year-old boy by mowing him down with a car has been arrested by the police. Priyaranjan (41) from Nalanchira, a relative of the victim Adhi Shekhar, was absconding since the boy died on August 30. Adhi’s family alleged that Priyaranjan had been harbouring a grudge towards the child for the past three months, ever since Adhi caught him urinating on the premises of a temple and questioned him. Adhi was run over by Priyaranjan’s car on August 30 at Poovachal in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram. While this was initially believed to be an accident, CCTV footage that surfaced days later indicated that it was a deliberate attack.
Priyaranjan, an RSS worker, was arrested by Thiruvananthapram Rural police on September 11, Monday. He was nabbed from Kuzhithurai near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, and later brought to the Kattakada police station. A large crowd gathered outside the police station after news got around that Priyaranjan was caught.
D Shilpa, District Police Chief of Thiruvananthapuram Rural, told the media that Priyaranjan will now be interrogated. “He was caught from the state border area. From the witness statements and from the CCTV footage, we have realised that it wasn´t just an accident. Only after interrogation can we ascertain more details,” she said,
Adhi was mowed down by a car at Pulinkode, and initially, it was believed to be a road accident. But the boy’s family alleged that Priyaranjan had been harbouring a grudge towards the child for the past three months, ever since Adhi caught him urinating on the premises of a temple and questioned him. CCTV visuals showed that the car, which was moving at a slow pace, accelerated suddenly while Adhi was trying to mount his cycle on the roadside, in front of Sri Bhadrakali temple in Pulingode. The car hit him and killed him on the spot. Another boy who was accompanying Adhi can be seen jumping to safety as the car whizzed past him.
Adhi, a Class 10 student of the Kattakada Chinmaya Mission School, is the son of government employees Arun Kumar and Deepa.