The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has opened a criminal inquiry into the death of violinist Balabhaskar in a ‘suspicious’ car accident here in September 2018.
The agency told its Special Court here on Wednesday that the parents of the musician were deeply sceptical about the conclusion of the Kerala Police that Balabhaskar and his two-year-old daughter Tejaswani Bala had died in a typical road accident. The police had also ruled out the question of any foul play.
Balabhaskar’s wife Lakshmi and the driver of the car, Arjun Radhakrishnan, had sustained severe injuries in the incident and were hospitalised for long.
Police finding
The Kerala Police had said in a court filing in November 2019 that the accident occurred when Arjun, who was at the wheel, dozed off.
The car veered hard to the extreme right of the carriageway and dashed against a tree abutting the road. The family was headed home from Thrissur and the long night drive had fatigued the driver and the passengers, the State police had said.
However, Arjun’s subsequent insistence that Balabhaskar was at the wheel at the time of the accident had added an element of murkiness to the incident.
Eyewitness statements by passers-by were also contradictory and often misleading. Moreover, the musician’s immense popularity as a youth icon had spawned countless conspiracy theories.
Parents’ charge
The parents of Balabhaskar petitioned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for a CBI inquiry into the death of their son in 2019.
They pointed out that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had booked two of the musician’s aides, both part of Balabhaskar’s entourage when he travelled abroad for stage programmes, on the charge of having smuggled gold in bulk through the international airport here in early 2018.
The agency had also named a senior Customs official as accused in the case.
The CBI said the parents of the musician wanted it to investigate whether Arjun, the driver of the car involved in the mishap, had any link with gold smuggling.
They also wanted the agency to scrutinise Balabhaskar’s financial dealings and examine fellow investors to find out whether anybody inimical to Balabhaskar had orchestrated the car accident.
Way forward
Officials said the CBI was poised to reconstruct the accident. It would also re-examine the fingerprints, and serological evidence lifted from the scene of the collision.
The accident had occurred early in the hours of September 25, 2018. The agency would try to find out whether the car was travelling above the legal speed limit when the crash occurred and whether the passenger had engaged seat belts and if the safety mechanisms, including airbags, had correctly deployed.
The CBI would also have to re-question persons already interviewed by the Kerala Police and search for new evidence and witnesses if any.
