What was perceived as an unfortunate car accident has now turned into a series of revelations that has opened a can of worms. The latest revelation in the case of celebrity violinist Balabhaskar’s death came from Soby George, a sound recordist at Cochin Kalabhavan, a centre for performing artists in Kochi.
Recently, the Kerala Crime Branch, which is probing Balabhaskar’s death, began questioning two men who were arrested in a gold smuggling case. Reason? The men, identified as Prakash Thampi and Vishnu, alleged that they were closely associated with the late violinist.
The 40-year-old singer-musician and his family were involved in a road accident at Pallipuram, near his hometown of Thiruvananthapuram, in September 2018. Balabhaskar, along with his wife Lekshmi and their two-year-old daughter Tejasvini, were on their way back from a temple trip in Thrissur when their car crashed into a tree. While they were rushed to a nearby hospital, Tejasvini, unfortunately, could not be saved. Balabhaskar passed away on October 2, 2018 after battling for life in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram for a week.
According to a report by Manorama News, Soby George said that he happened to pass by the spot within 10 minutes of the accident and saw two men under mysterious circumstances nearby. He claimed that he saw one man running away while the other was attempting to push a bike near the accident site.
Soby further claimed that he had immediately informed Prakash Thampi regarding the incident, as the latter was a close associate of Balabhaskar but Prakash allegedly did not show any interest or curiosity. “When I told him what I saw, he spoke against it and didn’t believe what I said,” Soby told Manorama News.
Soby's claim becomes significant given the fact that Prakash was recently arrested in a case of gold smuggling at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, and had opened up about his association with Balabhaskar as well.
According to reports, both Prakash and Vishnu used to work with the violinist. It was alleged that one of them organised events for Balabhaskar while the other took care of his finances. On the other hand, a statement signed by Lekshmi, his wife, was put up on Balabhaskar's Facebook page denying that Balabhaskar had any links with the two men.
Lekshmi, who had also sustained injuries but luckily survived the accident, alleged that their friend Arjun was driving at the time of the accident. Arjun on the other hand claimed that Balabhaksar had taken over the wheel when the accident took place. The conflicting statements led to further investigation and forensic tests to ascertain who had been in the driver’s seat. Post his death, the musician’s father too had requested that the Crime Branch investigate the case, citing financial irregularities in his son’s death.