Kochi: The Crime Branch (CB) on Saturday quizzed Balabhaskar's aide Prakash Thampi, under detention in a gold smuggling case, in connection with the death of the violinist.
In a statement given to the CB officers here, Mr Thampi said that Arjun, Balabhaskar's driver, had confessed to him that he fell asleep while at the wheel.
A three-member team led by Crime Branch DySP K. Harikrishnan questioned him for more than five hours at Ernakulam District Jail, Kakkanad.
According to a senior CB officer, they had got the information from Mr Thampi that it was Mr Arjun who was driving.
"As per his statement, it was Arjun who told Thampi at the hospital that he drove the vehicle and dozed off at the wheel.
However, we are yet to confirm as the investigation is under progress. We will cross check details along with visuals," he said.
The officer also said that Mr Thampi had admitted that he had collected and examined the CCTV visuals from the juice shop at Pallimukku in Kollam from where Balabhaskar and family had tender coconut.
According to Mr Thampi, he examined the visuals to get clarity on who was driving the vehicle. But he couldn't find it, the official said.
The juice shop owner Shamnad had earlier learnt to have told the Crime Branch that Mr Thampy came to his shop along with the employees who installed the camera and took away the disc in the initial stages of the probe and they were later returned.
Two days ago, he retracted his statement when speaking to the media saying he didn't know Mr Thampy and nobody took his disc.
He also stated that he had given it to DySP Harikrishnan only. This version of him has been shot down by Mr Thampi himself when he told Crime Branch that he had taken the hard disk and examined them.
Balabhaskar's wife Lekshmy had earlier stated that it was Arjun, who drove the car from Thrissur to Thiruvananthapuram. However, Mr Arjun told police that it was Balabhaskar who was at the wheel.
