Kerala man killed after police vehicle turns turtle

Tirupur: A man was killed and five others—including an assistant sub-inspector and a civilian—were injured when a police team investigating a man-missing case met with an accident near Tirupur on Thursday.
The deceased has been identified as G Harinarayanan, 51, of Mannanthala in Thiruvanathapuram. He was assisting the police in finding a relative, who has been missing since Tuesday.
The team of investigators from Hill Palace and Infopark police stations, and two civilians, Harinarayanan and Vinu Venugopal, left for Hyderabad from Kochi in a Toyota Innova around 1am. When the vehicle was passing Thekkalur in Tirupur district, the driver lost control, and it rammed the parapet on the left. Police said senior civil police officer Dinil was driving the vehicle, and he might have dozed off at the wheel, causing the accident.
Harinarayanan, a senior section engineer with the southern railway, was killed instantly, while ASI Vinayakan, who suffered grievous injuries, is in ventilator support in a Coimbatore hospital. Dinil, Venugopal, Rajesh, and Anil Kumar were also injured in the accident.
A Kerala police association office-bearer, however, said the cause of the accident was not known. “The only person who is now conscious was asleep when the accident happened, so the exact reason is yet to be known,” C R Biju, who visited the injured in the hospital, said. He, however, added that it was less likely that they slept off as the accident occurred not long after they had left Kerala. “Maybe they tried a quick turn. The exact reason will be known only when we talk to the injured officers,” he said.
Avinashi police have registered a case and are investigating the accident.
The police team, along with the civilians, were searching for the missing 21-year-old woman, an Infopark employee. The deceased man was her relative.TNN