Kochi: The Kerala High Court has ordered a further CBI probe into the 2019 death of noted violinist Balabhaskar, who died in a car crash that also claimed the life of his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The court said the agency had handled the matter in a casual and lackadaisical manner.
Justice G Girish also criticised the CBI for assigning the further probe to an Inspector, a rank lower than the agency's earlier investigating officer, an Additional Superintendent of Police. The court said the later probe appeared to be a damage control exercise aimed at protecting the earlier officer from blame.
The case was handed over to the CBI at the request of Balabhaskar's parents after they expressed dissatisfaction with the Crime Branch investigation. Their plea came after mimicry artist Kalabhavan Soby George claimed he had seen a group involved in gold smuggling attacking the vehicle in which Balabhaskar and his family were travelling on the day of the incident.
The Crime Branch concluded that it was an accident, and the CBI ASP who later investigated the matter also reached the same finding. After the parents moved the High Court again, it ordered a further probe and listed 20 suspicious circumstances for the agency to examine. The High Court said it was quite unfortunate that the CBI, instead of giving serious attention to those 20 aspects, deputed an Inspector to carry out the further investigation. The court noted that the officer examined 117 witnesses, including people already questioned earlier, and then filed a report affirming the findings of the ASP.
In its order, the court said that what was done by the Inspector in the subsequent investigation was a damage control exercise to save his superior officer, who conducted the earlier investigation, from the blame of not having been serious on many material suspicious circumstances which were looming large. It added that the aforesaid casual and perfunctory mode of investigation was adopted by the Inspector of CBI only because he cannot supersede the findings of the earlier Investigating Officer who was superior in rank.
The court further said that despite the serious observations made in its earlier order, the Inspector embarked upon the further investigation in a manner more vulnerable than the flawed investigation pointed out by this Court. It said the procedure followed did not match the skill, tactics and expertise expected from a premier agency like the CBI, and added that the officer had made no effort to use the agency's professional ability to uncover the truth.
Saying the parents' request for another probe by a competent officer could not be rejected even if the passage of time may have affected evidence, the High Court directed the CBI to hand over the case within two weeks to an officer of proven integrity not below the rank of Additional Superintendent of Police. The court said the officer must conduct the further probe by considering all relevant facts and the aspects highlighted in its earlier order.