Former Miss Kerala accident death: Crime Branch takes over probe, guests at party summoned

Kochi: A special team of the Crime Branch headed by SP Biji George will now probe the car crash that killed two models in Kerala on November 1.

The development came after the police probe team on Wednesday night arrested Roy J. Vayalatin, the owner of the hotel and five of his staff members where the DJ party took place prior to the accident.

Vayalatin was arrested after he told the police that the CCTV hard disk which contained the visuals of party had been destroyed.

While Ancy Kabeer, 25, and Anjana Shajan, 24, had died instantly in the crash, a third person- Ashiq, succumbed to his injuries a few days later, leaving Abdul Rahman, who drove the car, the only witness.

Rahman is presently out of hospital but the police have arrested him under charges of ‘involuntary manslaughter’.

Though the probe team recovered the hard disk of the CCTV footage at the hotel, it failed to get any visuals of the party, raising suspicion of a foul play.

After several days of probe, the police team learnt that there was an altercation during the party. Before things could take an ugly turn, the youngsters had left the hotel.

According to sources, Rahman was driving under the influence of alcohol.

It was on their way back that the car, after hitting a two-wheeler, lost control and overturned.

However, police found that there was a vehicle following the car carrying the two women. During interrogation, the driver said that the victims’ car was being driven at an extremely high speed.

As per reports, the driver of the car which followed the other car, had called up and informed the hotel owner about the accident.

Meanwhile, the police team had asked all those present in the party to come forward to record their statement which did not help as many of the participants were unregistered.

Those who had registered are now being summoned.

In another related development, the person who was following the ill-fated car, Saiju, on Thursday approached the court seeking anticipatory bail as he fears being arrested.

Timeline

• November 1 - Miss South India and Miss Kerala 2019 Ansy Kabeer, 25, and Miss Kerala 2019 first runner-up Anjana Shajan, 26, die after their car rams a tree at Palarivattom in Ernakulam district. Two others are seriously injured.

• November 7 - A person injured in the accident, Ashiq, 25, succumbs. Toll rises to three.

• November 8 - Police arrest Abdul Rahman who was driving the car in an inebriated state.

• November 13 - Footage shows a person, who reached the site soon after the accident, getting out of the car, taking a look and leaving. Two cars had been following the car that met with the accident. CCTV images show the cars had been involved in a chase.

• November 14 - CCTV images of a DJ party in a Fort Kochi hotel in which the accident victims took part are destroyed by the staff at the behest of the owner, police say.

• November 16 - Roy Joseph Vayalat, owner of the hotel, is questioned by the police for 11 hours and let off. Roy handed over one of the two digital video recorders (DVR) that contained the CCTV images of the hotel, to the police.

• November 17 - Roy and five hotel staff are arrested.