Thiruvananthapuram: Musician Balabhaskar was at wheel during mishap, says Driver

Thiruvananthapuram: In a fresh twist to the accident that claimed the lives of musician Balabhaskar and his two-year-old daughter Thejaswani Bala, Balabhaskar's friend and driver Arjun who survived the accident indicated to the police on Tuesday that it was Balabhaskar who drove the vehicle at the time of accident. On Tuesday, the police recorded the statement of Arjun in connection with the accident. He could not fully recollect the entire events. He said that he drove the car from Thrissur till Kollam and at Kollam they dropped at a wayside juice shop. Arjun said that he bought a juice from there and he sat on the rear side. But he could not recollect what happened afterwards.

While the first information statement collected by the police was that Arjun was driving the vehicle, DC had earlier reported that there was a contradicting version of a resident near the accident spot that Balabhaskar was behind the wheels at the time of the mishap that occurred at Pallippuram near here on September 25 early hours.

The Mangalappuram police said that further statement of Arjun needs to be recorded as he was yet to fully recover from the impact of the accident. The juice shop at Kollam also needs to be traced and any CCTV cameras available there would be examined to get more clarity on the matter.

Arjun was discharged from the private hospital here and taken to a hospital at his native place for further treatment. Balabhakar's wife Lakshmi is still undergoing treatment. She was recently informed of the death of Balabhaskar and Thejaswani.