Ex-Miss Kerala death: Crime Branch police takes over probe

Kochi: A special team of the Crime Branch headed by S.P. Biji George will now probe into the car crash which killed two models on November 1.

The development came after the police probe team on Wednesday night arrested Roy J. Vayalatin, the owner of the hotel and five of his staff members where the DJ party took place prior to the accident.

Vayalatin was arrested after he told the police that the CCTV hard disk which contained the visuals of party has been destroyed.

While Ancy Kabeer, 25, and Anjana Shajan, 24, had died instantly in the crash, a third person- Ashiq, succumbed to his injuries a few days later, leaving Abdul Rahman, who drove the car, the only witness.

Rahman is presently out of hospital but the police have arrested him under charges of ‘involuntary manslaughter’.

Though the probe team recovered the hard disk of the CCTV footage at the hotel, it failed to get any visuals of the party, raising suspicion of a foul play.

After several days of probe, the police team learnt that there was an altercation during the party. Before things could take an ugly turn, the youngsters had left the hotel.

According to sources, Rahman was driving under the influence of alcohol.

It was on their way back that the car, after hitting a two-wheeler, lost control and turned turtle.

However, police found that there was a vehicle following the car carrying the two women. During interrogation, the driver said that the victims’ car was being driven at an extremely high speed.

As per reports, the driver of the car which followed the other car, had called up and informed the hotel owner about the accident.

Meanwhile, the police team had asked all those present in the party to come forward to record their statement which did not help as many of the participants were unregistered.

Those who had registered are now being summoned.

In another related development, the person who was following the ill-fated car Saiju on Thursday approached the court seeking anticipatory bail as he fears of being arrested.