The owner of No 18 hotel in Kochi, Roy George, has been arrested by the Kerala police in connection with the probe into the accident that killed Miss Kerala Ansi Kabeer and that year’s runner-up Anjana Shajan and a friend. According to the police, Roy and five other employees have been arrested under charges of deleting CCTV footage and hence destroying evidence in the case.
Ansi and Anjana were killed in a car accident on the Vyttila-Palarivattom Bypass in Kochi in the wee hours of November 1 after the Ford Figo they were travelling in crashed into a tree by the road.
The police probing the case had found CCTV visuals that showed that before the accident, the Ford Figo in which Ansi and Anjana were travelling in was being followed by an Audi car. Later, CCTV visuals had shown Roy coming out of the Audi, checking the wrecked Ford Figo, and then driving away.
The police are probing two theories to find out why the Audi was following their car — one is that they may have had an altercation amongst themselves, and that is why the car was being followed, or secondly, there may have been a race. The police are also probing whether this race or chase led to the accident that killed Ansi and Anjana.
The police believe that there could have been a party at Hotel No 18 in Fort Kochi, and that Ansi and Anjana were returning from the party with two other friends when the accident took place. However, there was no CCTV footage retrieved from the hotel. The police have now arrested Roy George and five others for allegedly destroying the CCTV footage at No 18.
According to Malayalam channels, there was an argument between Ansi, Anjana, Roy and Shaiju, and that the men were chasing them. The driver Abdur Rahman had alleged that the other car chased them, and that’s why the accident took place.
In CCTV footage accessed from Thevara by the police, the two cars can be seen racing. A second CCTV visual accessed by the police shows after the accident, the Audi comes close to the wreckage and then speeds away.
Reports had also alleged that the police had been helping Roy, and that is why he had not been arrested till now even though he was seen in the CCTV footage.
Seven days after the accident, Abdul Rahman (25), who was a friend of the group and was driving the car that met with an accident, was arrested and booked under provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act and Indian Penal Code as he was found to be driving under the influence of alcohol. Ansi Kabeer (24) won the Miss Kerala 2019 and later went on to win Miss South India in 2021, and she was travelling with Miss Kerala 2019 runner-up Anjana Shajan (25), when they died in a road accident on November 1. The car in which they were travelling reportedly tried to swerve in a bid to avoid hitting a motorist on the road. The incident took place around 1.30 pm near the Holiday Inn hotel at Chakkaraparambu. Police said that the car was speeding, which is probably why the driver had to swerve to avoid the motorist and as a result crashed into a tree. Two other men who were in the car were also grievously injured and one of them lost his life on Sunday, November 7.