Over a year after the death of popular musician Balabhaskar in a road accident near here, the Kerala government has sought a CBI probe in the matter based on a request from his father. The government issued the notification handing over the case from Crime Branch to the CBI.
Speaking to the media, his father CK Unni on Tuesday said that the ongoing probe by the Kerala Crime Branch lacked conviction as some aspects were not being looked into it, despite his requests.
"We felt that the Crime Branch probe team was prejudiced that this was nothing but a road accident, even when we pointed out to them a few doubts that we had. Then came the news that a few members in my son's music troupe were arrested in the gold smuggling case that took place through the airports here. After the accident took place, we felt his friends were keeping us away from everything and hence our doubts increased. So we wish now the CBI will unravel what really happened," said Unni.
Balabhaskar (40) was travelling with his wife and two-year-old daughter, Tejasvini, from a temple trip in Thrissur to Thiruvananthapuram when their car crashed into a tree in the wee hours of September 25 last year, on the outskirts of the city.
While his daughter died on the spot, Balabhaskar died later on October 2. He had suffered severe head and spine injuries, and despite multiple surgeries, he sustained multiple organ failure.
His wife Lakshmi had also sustained multiple fractures in different parts of the body, but recovered later. Balabhaskar's friend Arjun, who was also in the car at the time of the accident, escaped with injuries.
Soon after the incident, doubts surfaced on who was driving the car when it met with the accident. While some reports said it was driven by Arjun, other reports mentioned that it was driven by the musician himself.
However, in August this year, the Thiruvananthapuram Crime Branch received test results from the Forensic Science Lab and confirmed that Arjun was driving the car during the fatal accident. Deputy Superintendent of Police Harishankar told TNM that the vehicle was overspeeding as the speedometer after the accident revealed that it was going at 100 km/hour.
(With inputs from IANS)