The Global Positioning System (GPS) of the lorry involved in the December 14 accident that mowed down city-based journalist S.V. Pradeep on the National Highway 66 near Karakkamandapam was tampered with immediately after the incident.
Analysis of the vehicle tracking data by the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has revealed that the vehicle location tracking device installed in the vehicle as part of the GPS was snapped after the incident after parking the vehicle away from the NH 66.
The MVD is the sole custodian of vehicle tracking data of the GPS-equipped motor vehicles stored in the State Data Centre housed at Technopark. Data from the real-time 24x7 GPS-based tracking and monitoring platform developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is also accessible to C-DAC.
The fully loaded vehicle, after moving at 20-30 km from the quarry, was found suddenly attaining a speed of 55 km at Karakkamandapam when it mowed down Mr. Pradeep, a visual and digital media journalist.
Both the lorry and the motorcycle in which Mr. Pradeep was travelling towards Balaramapuram side when the accident took place on the busy NH 66 corridor around 3.30 p.m.
A top official of the MVD privy to the vehicle tracking data told The Hindu that despite the tampering, the vehicle location tracking device of the lorry was functional using the in-built battery till the police traced the vehicle and took it into custody.
The CCTV footage recovered by the City police revealed that the journalist was hit by the lorry. The footage grabbed by the CCTV camera installed at Karakkamandapam traffic signal shows that the vehicle was seen taking a right turn at the signal point.
The tampering of the GPS has come to light soon after Sreeja, wife of Mr. Pradeep, expressed doubts over the genuineness of the accident and disappointment at the direction of probe into the accident.
The police had not approached the MVD for the vehicle tracking data of the lorry, the official said. It is for the investigators to look into why the GPS of the lorry was tampered with immediately after the accident and on the increase in speed of the lorry all of a sudden to 55 km.
