Thiruvananthapuram : As CBI investigations into Balabhaskar’s death begins, sleuths are looking to find if gold smuggling could have been a possible motive and if the violist’s death was in fact a murder. The gold angle assumes significance given that an earlier witness, Kalbhavan Sobi, who had testified noticing suspicious characters near the car crash site where the musician died, has now identified PS Sarith, the first accused in ongoing gold smuggling case, as one among them.
In June of 2019, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence(DRI) in their case, had found Balabhskar’s close aides, Vishnu and Prakash Thampi to have smuggled over 200 kg gold from Dubai after the musician’s death. And more intriguing was the fact that, the duo made a dozen trips to Dubai in the six months following Balabhaskar’s death, fetching up to 60 and 150 kg gold respectively during their journeys. However, the hitch to linking it to Balabhaskar’s case was that, DRI failed to come up with any evidence to the duo’s smuggling activities before the musician’s death. Adding to suspicions were also the fact that, Thampi had befriended the conniving Customs Superintendent, who was convicted later, using Balabhaskar’s name.
CBI will now backtrack the events in the buildup to the fatal crash, where the popular violinist died from injuries though reportedly sleeping on the back seat of his car, while the driver at the wheel escaped with minor injuries. Balabhaskar’s wife who sat on the passenger side in the front with their 3-year-old daughter too suffered serious injuries. The child too died in the incident.
CBI have summoned Balabhaskar’s father, wife and friends for fresh testimonies. The violinist’s family especially the father had urged authorities for long, to look deeper into what he believes was his son’s murder for money.
