Court has 20 suspicions regarding Balabhaskar's death

KOCHI: The circumstances in the case and the suspicions raised by the petitioners surrounding Balabhaskar's aide Prakash Thambi, Jishnu, one of the first to know about the accident, Jishnu's mother and driver Arjun's relative Latha Ravindranath, and Vishnu Somasundaram, Arjun's friend and former employer, prompted the High Court to order a further investigation. The court observed that 20 of the suspicions were relevant.

Suspicions

1. Although Balabhaskar and his family had booked a room in Thrissur, they later canceled it and returned to Thiruvananthapuram at night. Latha's statement is that Balabhaskar was adamant that he should go to Thiruvananthapuram as he has a meeting with music director Akshay Varma the next day. Akshay Verma has denied this.

2. It was the police who picked up the call when Latha called Arjun's phone on September 25 at 4:15 a.m. She then called Jishnu who was with Prakash Thambi.

3. Prakash Thambi and Jishnu reached the Ananthapuri Hospital and later the Medical College at around 4:30 in the morning. They then shifted Balabhaskar and his wife to Ananthapuri Hospital against the advice of doctors.

4. Around 10 am, Prakash Thambi reached the Mangalapuram police station and received Balabhaskar's mobile phone, wallet etc. However, he did not sign the register.

5. Prakash Thambi did not hand over the mobile despite repeated requests by Balabhaskar's wife

6. In May 2019, two mobile phones of Balabhaskar were recovered from the pooja room of Prakash Thambi's house in a raid conducted by DRI officials in the gold smuggling case.

7. Prakash Thambi and Vishnu Somasundaram have been arrested in the gold smuggling case.

8. Prakash Thampi had withdrawn Rs.25,000 from an ATM near the accident site a few hours before the accident.

9. Before shifting Balabhaskar and his wife to a private hospital, Prakash did not inform Balabhaskar's close relative and Medical Director of SUT Dr. Anoop Chandran about the matter.

10. Balabhaskar's parents and relatives were informed about the accident only after he was shifted to Ananthapuri.

11. Dr. Anoop testified that Prakash Thambi's behaviour on learning about Balabhaskar's death was dramatic and suspicious.

12. Prakash Thambi traveled to Kollam along with a technician and another person to check the CCTV footage of the shop where Balabhaskar had consumed juice during the journey.

13. The juice shop owner testified that Prakash Thambi and the technician checked the CCTV and said that they did not find anything.

14. A woman and a man had come to the Mangalapuram police station to receive Balabhaskar's belongings collected by the police from the accident site.

15. Records show that two calls were answered by Balabhaskar's phone on September 25 at 7:14 a.m. within the limits of the Mangalapuram police station and at 7:35 a.m. at Pettah Junction.

16. Prakash Thambi was within the limits of Mangalapuram and Kazhakoottam Towers at these times.

17. Driver Arjun had a criminal background including two ATM robbery cases.

18. Arjun, who was driving at a speed of 94 kmph, was not wearing his seat belt. Yet, he did not sustain many injuries.

19. Prakash Thambi had collected Balabhaskar's fingerprints at Ananthapuri Hospital.

20. Akash Shaji, who was involved in gold smuggling, called Prakash Thambi on the phone at 10:30 p.m. on September 24 and spoke for eight and a half minutes.