Musician Balabhaskar's death was not accident: Soby

In a shocking revelation about the death of hugely admired Malayalam musician Balabhaskar, popular stage artiste Kalabhavan Soby on Wednesday said it was not an accident.

After last week's revelation that while he had noted suspicious things, minutes after Balabhaskar's car met with the accident when Soby, himself was on his way to the state capital, on Wednesday stage artiste met the Crime Branch.

He was with the police probe team that is investigating the death. He was with them for three hours.

Speaking to the media later, Soby said that through his statement of facts given before them, the accident case will turnaround.

"Balabhaskar's death was not an accident death. I have shared with the police several things, which I have not shared with the media till now. Through my disclosure, am sure that there will be a turnaround in the case," said Soby.

The stage artiste said ever since he revealed about the suspicious things he saw at the accident spot, when he passed the area, he has been getting threat calls.

"I do not think there is anything wrong in sharing with the probe team, what I saw and I just did that," added Soby.

Balabhaskar, 40, was travelling with his wife and two-year-old daughter from Thrissur to the state capital, when their car met with an accident in the wee hours of September 25 last year, in the outskirts here.

While the daughter died on the spot, Balabhaskar passed away on October 2. His wife and driver escaped with injuries.

The musician's father C.K. Unni demanded a probe, as he suspected foul play in the death, soon after the incident took place.

The case had taken a turn last week after the arrest of one Prakash Thampi by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in a gold smuggling case.

Thampi was the programme coordinator of Balabhaskar's shows and, according to the probe team, also the last person to call Balabhaskar before his car met with the accident. Vishnu, another associate of the musician, is on the run.

The police probe team has met Unni and the wife of Balabhaskar, Laxmi, and recorded their statements again.

--IANS

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