Kochi: The Kerala high court has ordered CBI to conduct a further investigation into the 2018 accident in which violinist Balabhaskar and his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Thejaswini, were killed at Pallipuram in Thiruvananthapuram .
Balabhaskar and his daughter were killed, while his wife, Lakshmi , was severely injured, when their car veered off the road and rammed a tree in the early hours of Sept 25, 2018, while they were returning from Thrissur. The HC had ordered a further investigation in 2023, following which a supplementary charge sheet was filed. The CJM court dismissed their petition on Dec 23, 2025, prompting them to approach HC.
Justice G Girish issued the order on a petition filed by Balabhaskar’s parents, K C Unni and Santhakumari, challenging an order of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court, Thiruvananthapuram, rejecting their plea for further investigation and a stay on court proceedings. Setting aside the CJM court’s order, HC directed the CBI director to issue necessary orders within two weeks, entrusting the probe to an officer not below the rank of additional superintendent of police.
His parents challenged the supplementary charge sheet, alleging that it failed to address suspicious circumstances flagged by the HC itself while ordering the earlier investigation.
the bench came down heavily on the CBI inspector who conducted the earlier investigation, observing that he had adopted a ‘casual and lackadaisical’ approach and appeared to have proceeded on the premise that there was nothing wrong with the investigation conducted earlier by his superior officer While allowing the petition.
Balabhaskar’s phone was later recovered by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence during a search conducted about eight months after the accident in connection with a gold-smuggling case.