Makeover matters least in Nedumbassery car-hit case, say legal experts

The drastic restyling of Suhail Sajeev, 19, an accused in the Nedumbassery car hit incident that killed three youngsters, has left many onlookers wondering about the legal fallouts of the makeover of the accused.

The onlookers were in for a surprise on Thursday (October 15, 2026) to see a gloomy youngster with a cross-cropped haircut stepping out of the police vehicle, which brought him to the site of the accident, in place of the charming, clean-shaven youth with a long-hair and boyish appearance. The accused had a haircut in Borstal School where he was housed, which left to wonder loudly whether it was an attempt to defeat a possible identification parade in jail.

However, criminal law experts feel that an identification parade would be a futile exercise in this case as the identity of the accused is all over social media.

“Identification parades are usually carried out to confirm the identity of an accused, who is not known to the eyewitnesses. The parades would be held in cases where the identity of the accused is doubtful. In the case of Suhail, it would be the CCTV visuals and other forensic evidence that matter and not the parade,” said John S. Ralph, a lawyer specialising in criminal law.

The CCTV visuals have captured the accident, which would be a crucial piece of evidence in such cases. Forensic experts would be coming up with the impact reports after matching the damage on the body of both the car driven by the accused and the scooter in which the deceased were travelling. The paint of both the vehicles would be traceable in each other, which also would be an important piece of evidence,” said Mr. Ralph.

A senior district judge, who had tried several criminal cases, noted that the electronic evidence and the identification of the accused as the person who was driving the car would play a crucial role in deciding the fate of the case. The oral evidence given by the witnesses, the presence of the accused in a particular mobile tower location at the time of the alleged act, CCTV visuals, and the registration certificate of the vehicle in the name of the accused would all matter during the trial, he said.

Identification parade, said a former district judge, becomes imperative in cases where the identity of the accused is doubtful. In the case of the Nedumbassery accident, the accused was caught red-handed and handed over to the police. The statements of those witnesses would emerge crucial, he said.

The police would make the accused wear face-covering hoodies in cases in which an identification parade is required while taking them to courts and the crime scenes to protect their identity, which has to be confirmed during the parade, he added.