Eighteen months after violinist Balabhaskar and his young daughter were killed in an accident in September 2018 in Thiruvananthapuram, the Central Bureau of Investigation has formally taken over the case and filed a First Information Report (FIR) on July 30, Thursday. In its FIR, the CBI has mentioned that Balabhaskar's father was suspicious that a gold smuggling racket may have harmed his son.
In 2019, two of Balabhaskar’s former associates Prakasan Thampi and Vishnu were caught with smuggled gold at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. According to reports, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) stated that the duo had collectively smuggled 200 kilograms of gold from the Gulf to Kerala in 10 foreign trips. While Prakasan Thampi used to be Balabhaskarar’s programme manager, Vishnu used to manage the late musician’s finances. The two were arrested by the DRI and remanded to judicial custody last year.
“I don’t have any solid evidence to establish my suspicions. But it seems Balu (Balabhaskar) had refused to entertain the two men after learning about their gold smuggling dealings, following which he passed away in the accident. This aroused suspicions in us and we decided to request for an investigation,” CK Unni, the late violinist’s father told TNM.
Unni also alleged that in the months leading up to Balabhaskar’s death, there were several suspicious transactions from the musician’s account which he was unaware of. A few days after the accident, Kalabhavan Sobhi, a stage artist who was present at the accident site, had alleged that a few people at the accident site had looked suspicious to him. After the Kerala gold smuggling case via diplomatic channels got exposed recently, Sobhi said that he could identify one of the strangers near the car and it was PS Sarith - the main accused in the gold smuggling case.
Balabhaskar died on October 2, 2018 after spending close to a week in a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram following the car crash. The renowned violinist was returning after a temple visit from Thrissur, along with his wife Lakshmi one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Tejaswani and Arjun, when their car had met with the accident near the CRPF camp in Pallipuram on National Highway 66 at 4.15 am of September 25, 2018.
During investigations following his death, the musician’s wife alleged that it was their driver Arjun who was behind the wheel at the time of the accident. However Arjun countered the claim, stating that it was Balabhaskar who drove the car.
“Arjun has now filed a complaint in Thrissur against me demanding a compensation of over one crore for the damages that the accident had caused him. He filed the complaint alleging that it was Balabhaskar who was driving the car when they met with the accident,” Unni added.
Meanwhile, Balabhaskar’s family filed a petition asked for further investigations in August 2019, which has not been taken up.
“The CBI has now formally taken over the case and is probing. Balabhaskar is gone now, and he won’t come back. But there is the concept of natural justice and I need to ensure that the son receives that,” Unni added.