Kerala High Court orders CBI probe into Kalabhavan Mani's death

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the death of actor Kalabhavan Mani based on the petitions filed by Mani's wife Nimmy and his brother R.L.V. Ramakrishnan. A single bench which directed the CBI to take over the case within one month said that the death of a public figure cannot be treated as an ordinary case. To do complete justice to the petitioners and to instil confidence among the public, it was necessary to direct the CBI to probe the case, it said.

In spite of all the efforts taken by the police, the state government on the advice of the state police chief also felt that the matter required to be investigated by the CBI. In the nature of facts disclosed in the case, the state was justified in referring the matter for CBI investigation, the court said. It rejected the CBI submission that it cannot take over the case due to shortage of staff. The state had constituted a medical board which found that Mani died of methyl alcohol poisoning on March 6 last year. It also ruled out the presence of pesticides, drugs, alkoloids, metallic and volatile poisons.

The report stated that the medical board consisting of ten doctors had met on March 25 and examined the post-mortem certificate, certificate of chemical analysis, examination report from the chemical analysis of the viscera and blood collected from Mani, examination report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, toxicology report from Amritha Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi, and histopathology report from government medical college, Thrissur.