Back
Orders Fresh Probe Into Balabhaskar Death, Calls Probe 'Casual And Lackadaisical'
The has ordered a fresh ) probe into the 2018 road accident that killed violinist Balabhaskar and his infant daughter, holding that the agency's earlier was a "casual and lackadaisical" exercise that failed to address 20 flagged by the court.
Justice G. Girish, on Friday (), allowed a filed by the musician's parents, K.C. Unni (77) and B. Santhakumari (72), and set aside the order of the , which had declined . The has been directed to entrust the case — registered as RC 034 2020 S 0003 — to an officer of , not below the rank of Additional Superintendent of Police, within two weeks.
A Fatal Homecoming
Balabhaskar, his wife Lakshmi, and their 18-month-old daughter Thejaswini were returning to Thiruvananthapuram from a temple ritual in Thrissur when their Innova car, driven by Arjun K. Narayanan, swerved right and rammed a tree beside the National Highway near the CRPF Camp at Pallippuram around 4:15 a.m. on . The vehicle was travelling at about 94 kmph. The child was declared brought dead at Ananthapuri Hospital; Balabhaskar, admitted to the Medical College Hospital with quadriplegia and shifted to the private hospital within hours, succumbed to his injuries on . Lakshmi, unconscious for nearly a month, survived.
The
charged the driver under
. The case soon took a dramatic turn when mimicry artist Kalabhavan Soby George disclosed that he had seen persons involved in gold smuggling attacking Balabhaskar's vehicle at the time of the accident. Prakash Thampi — Balabhaskar's close friend who rushed to the hospitals within hours of the crash — was by then arrested by the
)
in a gold smuggling case and later detained under
. The
, which took over the probe, concluded that the incident was
"nothing but a pucca accident."
The
, which inherited the investigation in
on the parents' representation, came to the same conclusion.
20 Red Flags the Was Told to Follow
In an order dated , a of the High Court directed and expressly listed 20 requiring verification. These included: Thampi collecting Balabhaskar's mobile phone, wallet and car key from Mangalapuram police station within hours of the accident without any acknowledgement; his alleged refusal to hand over the phone to Lakshmi; the recovery of two of Balabhaskar's mobile phones from a pooja room in Thampi's house by the about eight months later; Thampi's withdrawal of ₹25,000 from an ATM close to the accident spot just hours before the crash; the shifting of the seriously injured couple against medical advice to a hospital six kilometres away despite closer options; and the driver's , including two ATM theft cases.
A 'Damage Control' Exercise
What followed, the court said, defeated the very purpose of its earlier order. Instead of entrusting the to the same officer or someone of equal or higher rank, the deputed an Inspector — junior to the earlier investigating officer, an Additional Superintendent of Police. The Inspector examined 117 witnesses, including most of those already examined, and filed a further report on , reaffirming the earlier conclusions.
The court held that the
was
"totally against the purport and objectives of
."
It noted that the earlier investigating officer, examined during the further probe, had in effect discredited the High Court's directions by declaring the 20 suspicious points "devoid of merits."
"The aforesaid casual and perfunctory mode of investigation was adopted by the Inspector of Central Bureau of Investigation only because of the reason that he cannot supersede the findings of the earlier Investigating Officer who was superior in rank."
Key Observations
"It is quite unfortunate to note that the Central Bureau of Investigation which was expected to ponder its serious attention to the aforesaid 20 , took the matter in a casual and lackadaisical manner, and deputed an Inspector, lower in rank to the earlier Investigating Officer, to conduct the ."
"In fact, what has been done by the Inspector in the subsequent investigation was a damage control exercise to save his superior officer who conducted the earlier investigation from the blame of not having been serious on many material which were looming large."
The High Court found that the Inspector obtained fresh statements from witnesses who either denied their earlier statements or pleaded an inability to remember, and accepted them without confronting them with the material collected.
"In either case, the Inspector is seen to have accepted what the above witnesses stated as gospel truth,"
the court observed, adding that the probe did not
"behove the status of skill, tactics and expertise which are expected from a premier investigating agency like the
."
The court also faulted the failure to conduct brain mapping and lie detector tests on Soby George despite his willingness, and termed the suspicions raised by the parents regarding Thampi's possession of Balabhaskar's phone as "not unfounded."
A Fresh Mandate for a Senior Officer
Allowing the revision petition, the court set aside the Magistrate's order and directed the
to pass necessary orders within two weeks entrusting the
to an officer of
, not below the rank of Additional Superintendent of Police. The officer shall conduct the probe
"paying serious attention to the pertinent aspects pointed out"
in the 2023 judgment.
"That being so, the request of the parents of the deceased Musician to embark upon a by a competent officer, cannot be discarded even though the elapse of much time might have resulted in effacing of evidence."
The judgment does not record any finding on the cause of death; it only mandates a genuine, senior-led investigation into the circumstances that have haunted the musician's family for eight years. The court made clear that the agency's earlier conclusions remain subject to whatever the fresh probe uncovers.
