A high-speed chase by a suspected drug peddler in his luxury car led to the accident in which three people, including former Miss Kerala Ansi Kabeer and runner-up Anjana Shajan, 26, died on November 1, Kochi police commissioner CH Nagaraju has said.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Nagaraju said their probe showed the accident took place when the victims were forced to speed away. “After the party, Saiju Thankachan made some overtures which they turned down and that led to a chase,” he said.
The special investigation team on Tuesday submitted a report in the court, saying if there were no chase, all three would have been alive. The court then turned down Thankachan’s bail plea and extended his police custody for three more days.
“He is a drug addict and involved in many shady deals. We have information that he harassed many girls after late-night parties. If they come up, we will register more cases. We have registered two cases against him for criminal intimidation (Section 506), culpable homicide (section 299) and other sections (of IPC),” said the commissioner.
During investigation, Thankachan told the police that he followed them in his Audi car to warn their driver Abdul Rehman, who was drunk, police said. Rehman, however, told the police that he drove the vehicle (Ford Aspire) at the maximum speed to evade the chasing car. He also said that Thankachan had blocked their car near Kundanoor junction and threatened them to return to the hotel, police added.
While former Miss Kerala Anis Kabeer and runner up Anjana Shajan died on the spot, their friend M Ashiq, an advertising professional, died after a week. Their driver Rehman escaped with injuries since he was wearing the seat belt.
Prior to the crash, Kabeer and Shajan had gone to attend a DJ party at a hotel. While the probe team recovered the hard disk of the CCTV footage at the hotel, initially they failed to get any visuals of the party raising suspicions. However, reports claimed that there was an unpleasant incident during the party. Before things could take an ugly turn, the youngsters had left the hotel. Police also discovered that at the time of the accident, the car of the two women was being followed.
The Kerala police later interrogated the owner of the hotel where the DJ party took place. Despite several summons, hotel owner Roy J.Vayalatin did not come forward to record his statement. After the State Police chief Anil Kant intervened, he finally appeared before the probe team. The Kerala police probe team finally arrested Roy J. Vayalatin (the owner of the hotel) and five of his staff members after which Vayalatin confessed to the police that the CCTV hard disk which contained the visuals of party has been destroyed.
A special team of the Crime Branch headed by S.P. Biji George later took over the case. During the interrogation since the hotel staffers had revealed that the hard disk which contained footage from the party was destroyed and thrown into the nearby backwaters, a team of scuba divers on Monday (22 November) afternoon jumped into the backwaters, near Kochi with the objective of trying to retrieve the hard disk.
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