CBI begins probe into death of India violinist Balabhaskar, daughter in 2018 Kerala road accident

New Delhi: The CBI has taken over the investigation into the death of renowned violinist from Kerala, Balabhaskar, and his daughter in a 2018 road accident after his family alleged the accused in the case were linked to a gold smuggling ring, officials said.

The violinist was returning home with his wife Lakshmi and 18-month-old daughter Tejaswani after a visit to a temple in Thrissur when their car had an accident near a CRPF camp in Pallipuram on National Highway 66 on September 25, 2018.

Passersby, local residents and highway patrol of Kerala police took the injured Balabhaskar, Lakshmi and driver Arjun to Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, and Tejaswini to Anathapuri Hospital.

The hospital declared Tejaswini dead on arrival. Balabhaskar died on October 2.

The postmortem of the child revealed that she died of head injury, while for Balabhaskar head and chest injuries proved fatal.

Last year, Balabhaskar’s father Unni met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and sought a CBI probe into the death of his son and granddaughter Tejaswani.

Unni alleged a conspiracy behind his son’s death.

“I feel the accident was engineered,” Unni had told the media in Thiruvananthapuram.

The crime branch, which probed the case, had not found anything unusual in the accident and had not looked into it from the conspiracy angle, he had said.

Prakash Thampy, a close aide of the violinist, who had been arrested in connection with gold smuggling, and the driver Arjun stated that it was Balabhaskar who was at the wheel, he had said.

However, police investigations revealed Arjun was driving the car.

Officials said on Wednesday that the CBI has taken over the FIR of Kerala police pertaining to rash driving in which Arjun was named as accused.