Late violinist Balabhaskar’s wife Lakshmi and friend Arjun will be questioned again by the Attingal police to get clarity on the accident that resulted in the death of Balabhaskar and his daughter. The move to question them comes after statements by Lakshmi and Arjun - both of whom survived the September 25 accident - contradicted each other.
Lakshmi had said that it was Arjun who was driving the car while Balabhaskar sat in the rear seat. However, Arjun contradicted this by saying that Balabhaskar had taken the wheel after a pit-stop. Several witnesses have also given contradicting statements as to who was driving the car when it crashed.
Speaking to TNM Attingal DySP Anil Kumar said that the questioning was a routine procedure of police investigation.
“The first time it was just blind questioning as even the police did not know what had happened. We just asked them (Lakshmi and Arjun) to tell us what happened before and after the accident. This time we will ask them questions based on the information we have gathered. We will be cross questioning them when we find contradictions in their statements,” he said.
Lakshmi’s and Arjun’s statements will however only be collected after the police finish questioning other witnesses. The police are currently questioning rescue workers who were at the accident spot, he said.
The DySP confirmed that no conclusive evidence has yet been found on who was behind the wheel during the crash.
“We have interviewed a few witnesses including rescue workers and those who arrived first at the spot. While most statements we got said that it was Balabhaskar who was driving, other statements have contradicted this claim. We are yet to gather conclusive evidence,” Anil Kumar had told TNM. He also denied news reports that claimed that the investigation had concluded that Balabhaskar was behind the wheel.
On September 25, 2018, the car in which the musician was traveling with his two-year-old daughter Tejaswini, Lakshmi and friend Arjun crashed into a tree near the Pallipuram CRPF camp in Thiruvananthapuram. While Tejaswini passed away on the spot, the three adults were hospitalised. A week after the accident, Balabhaskar who was critical passed away from a cardiac arrest on October 2 in Ananthapuri hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.
On Saturday, Balabhaskar’s father CK Unni filed a complaint to the Chief Minister and DGP Loknath Behera to probe his son’s death. In his letter, Unni had said that the family had booked a room in Thrissur and had planned to stay over that night. But Balabhaskar had suddenly cancelled the trip and started towards Thiruvananthapuram in the night. CK Unni also wants a probe on Arjun's antecedents. He has told the DGP that he had suspicions over an investment that Balabhaskar made at the behest of Arjun.