The Crime Branch team which probed the death of popular violinist Balabhaskar (40) has clarified that there is no mystery behind his death, as has been alleged by various quarters.
A report submitted to the Kerala home department by the Crime Branch says that there was nothing suspicious behind the accident and overspeeding was the reason. A report of the probe copy accessed by TNM says that the car was overspeeding and the driver lost control leading to the accident.
The accident occurred on the morning of September 25, 2018 when the car in which Balabhaskar and his family were travelling skidded off the road and crashed into a tree in Pallipuram in Thiruvananthapuram. While their two-year-old daughter Tejasvini Bala died on the spot, Balabhaskar and his wife Lekshmi were found to be in a critical condition and hospitalised. The driver and relative Arjun was also hospitalised with injuries on his leg.
The family was returning to Thiruvananthapuram after visiting the Guruvayur Sreekrishana temple in Thrissur. After a week-long battle in the Intensive Care Unit of Ananthapuri hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, Balabhaskar passed away on October 2, 2018. Lakshmi and Arjun survived the accident.
Soon, Balabhaskar’s father CK Unni raised allegations of foul play behind his son’s death and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan gave directions to hand over the probe to the Crime Branch.
The main finding of the Crime Branch was that “the vehicle was overspeeding from the beginning of the journey from Thrissur to Thiruvananthapuram”.
According to the Crime Branch report, the driver took only 3.5 hours to over a distance of 260 km, indicating clearly that the vehicle was overspeeding: “The speed of the vehicle registered on CCTV footage at Chalakkduy was 95 km/hr on 25/09/2018 at 00.13.08 hrs. A stretch of 260 km was covered within a time limit of hardly 3.5 hrs, showing the rashness and overspeeding of the driver. The collision of the vehicle with the tree was at such a speed that the bolt of the water pump of the vehicle got penetrated in to the trunk of the tree and is still stuck there.”
The report also quoted evidence collected from the car and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for examination.
“As per the FSL report only the person who was sitting in the front left seat wore seat belt, stretching and burning abrasions of fibres are detected from the said seat belt. FSL report from DNA division stated that hair like material was collected from the bend steering wheel and related air bag. Hairs collected from the sun shade found at the front side of the driver seat, swab taken from the suspected stain found below the driver seat, one dirty black coloured ‘Mark’ brand foot wear of left leg and air bag collected from the steering are same as that of Arjun,” said the report.
The report also stated that the “investigation so far conducted reveals that Arjun K Narayanan was the driver at the time of occurrence and the overspeeding of the car in the entire stretch of the journey from Thrissur to Thiruvananthapuram during odd hours caused the driver to lose control and resulted in the said crash. No incriminating factors other than those described above have unearthed so far regarding the involvement of any other person in the accident. The accused is not arrested yet. Now the investigation is going to find out the facts behind the allegations contained in the petition filed by Balabhaskar’s father to the state police chief.”
Deputy Superintendent of Police K Harikrishnan who led the probe told TNM, “Our inquiry found that there was no mystery behind the accident. Our probe revealed that overspeeding and rash driving led to the accident in the early morning hours.”
“We verified all the allegations raised by Balabhaskar’s father too. We added all the details of the accident behind the death in our probe report. The government handed over the probe of the case to Central Bureau of Investigation and now the case is under the consideration of the CBI,” Harikrishnan added.