Vellore :

Assistant director of Mobile Forensic Science Laboratory, Vellore, K Pari has helped investigating officers solve a recent hit- and-run case with the help of a portion of tyre mark, a few pieces of broken metals and paint flakes of an unidentified vehicle that was involved in the accident.

Pari’s efforts and expertise won him the award for applying scientific methods in a real life-time situation.

Director general of police Asok Kumar presented him the award during the state police duty meet in Chennai on August 13.

Natrampalli inspector Muralidharan, who investigated the hit-and-run case , got the award for best investigation.

Pari said the accident took place at Athurkuppam on the Chennai-Bengaluru National Highway around 3.30am on April 22.

The victims were travelling on a bullock cart from their native village Elaraipatti to Natrampalli for a temple festival.

When the bullock cart was passing through Athurkuppam, it was hit by an unidentified vehicle. Three women died and seven people sustained injuries.

“It was a rear end collision. Except the tyre mark, flakes of paint and broken materials, there was nothing in the accident spot,” said Pari.

“Going by the tyre mark, we come to a conclusion that it was a heavy vehicle that hit the bullock cart. The rear right side of the bullock cart was hit by the vehicle. We concluded that the left front side of the heavy vehicle had hit the bullock cart. Since the paint flakes were brown in colour, we focused on brown colour heavy vehicles. We checked CCTV footages at the toll plaza in Vaniyambadi and Krishnagiri,” he said.

However, no such vehicle had passed the toll plazas for the next couple of hours after the accident. “None of the heavy vehicles passed the toll plazas matched our suspect list. We continued checking the footages,” he said.

The investigation team zeroed in on one vehicle as it took over 20 hours to cross Krishnagiri toll plaza form Vaniyambadi.

“Normally, it will take 90 minutes between Krishnagiri and Vaniyambadi toll plazas. Though the video footages showed that the vehicle was intact (no damage was seen), we grew suspicious as the vehicle took over 22 hours to cross the Krishnagiri toll plaza,” he said.

Investigations helped police nab the man behind the wheels of the vehicle that claimed the three lives.

The team found that stark difference between the right and left front portion of the vehicle. “While the left side was painted and gives a glassy look, the right side was pale brown. So, it strengthened our doubts. Further investigation revealed that the driver had halted en route to Krishnagiri to repair the damaged portion,” he further said.

The sample of paint collected from the right side of the vehicle and paint flakes found on the accident spot also matched. The analysis of the samples at the Forensic Lab in Chennai also confirmed it, said Pari, who had been honoured by the police department four times earlier for helping solve cases.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by Shanmugasundaram J / TNN / August 11th, 2016