Former Miss Kerala winners' accident case: Court grants bail to six people including the hotel owner

Kochi: Six people arrested in connection with the deaths of two models in a car crash were granted bail in Kerala, a south Indian state.

The owner and five employees of a hotel, arrested on suspicion of destroying a hard disk believed to contain evidence linked to the crash, were granted bail by the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Thursday.

Police in Palarivattom had arrested them on Wednesday over the deaths of 2019 Miss Kerala Ansi Kabeer, first runner-up Anjana Shajan and Thrissur native Mohammad Ashiq in a car crash on November 1 at Chakkarapparambu in Kochi.

The car hit a two-wheeler and crashed onto a tree by the side of the NH 66 at Chakkaraparambu early morning. Ansi and Anjana died on the spot while Ashiq succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Kochi. Abdul Rehman, a native of Mala, was later arrested as he was found to have driven the car under the influence of alcohol.

Ansi Kabeer and Anjana Shajan had attended a party at a hotel in Fort Kochi, owned by Roy Vayalat, before the accident. Melwin, Vishnu, Linson, Shijulal and Anil are the employees of the hotel.

Police quizzed Vayalat for 11 hours on Tuesday. He was summoned again on Wednesday to the Office of Assistant Commissioner of Police in Ernakulam and arrested.

• 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.