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Brother of former Miss Kerala runner-up seeks probe into car crash
In the complaint, Arjun Shajan has asked the police to probe the role of Roy Joseph, owner of the hotel where the models participated in a party and one Shaju Thankachan who followed them in his luxurious car after the party.
The brother of former 2019 Miss Kerala runner-up Anjana Shajan, who, along with two others, died in a car accident, filed a complaint with the Kochi Police on Sunday and sought a detailed probe into the circumstances which led to the accident.
In the complaint, Arjun Shajan has asked the police to probe the role of Roy Joseph, owner of the hotel where the models participated in a party and one Shaju Thankachan who followed them in his luxurious car after the party. “Some of the emerging details are serious. We want a thorough probe into the role of hotel owner Roy Joseph and Thankachan,” Arjun said in Kochi. Earlier, the parents of former Miss Kerala Ansy Kabeer, another accident victim, also filed a similar police complaint.
During the investigation, the police found that the car was being tailed by an Audi car. Moreover, CCTV visuals from the hotel in Kochi were missing. During the probe, the police also found that employees retrieved the storage disk of the party area, as directed by the owner, and threw it into backwaters later.
Sixteen days after the tragic deaths, the police arrested the hotel owner Joseph and five employees where the late-night party was held after two days of intense questioning. They got bail the next day.
A senior police officer of the port city said they were arrested on charges of destroying evidence (section 204 of the IPC) and rash and negligent driving amounting to culpable homicide (section 304).
Initially, the police booked the driver Abdul Rehman under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. There were charges against the police that they are under pressure to go slow in the case, and driver Rehman was trying to hide vital information about the incident. Rehman remains in the hospital owing to his injuries but in under judicial custody, the police said.
The fatal mishap took place on November 1 at around 1.30 am when the driver hit a tree on the roadside to save a motorbike rider in front of them. The car mangled in the impact, and it took some time for the rescuers to retrieve the trapped, the police said. Both Ansy and Anjana died on the spot while their friend Mohammad Ashiq, an advertising professional, died after a week. The driver escaped with minor injuries, the police added.
Ansy was crowned Miss Kerala in 2019. In the same competition, Anjana ended as runner-up. After the accident, Ansy’s mother, unable to withstand her daughter’s tragic end, tried to die suicide but was saved by her relatives.
