Former Miss Kerala's death: Hotel owner and 5 others arrested

Kochi, November 17, 2021

After two days of interrogation, the Kerala Police on Wednesday arrested the owner and five staff members of the hotel where a DJ party took place prior to the car crash which killed two models on November 1.

Despite several summons, hotel owner Roy J. Vayalatin did not come forward to record his statement and after the State Police chief Anil Kant intervened, he finally appeared before the investigation team on Tuesday.

After the questioning was over, he was allowed to leave but asked to appear again with all the hard disks of the visuals of the CCTV cameras installed at his hotel.

Ansi Kabeer, 25, winner of the Miss Kerala 2019 title, and Anjana Shajan, 26, the runner-up in the contest in that year, were travelling in the car with two others when it crashed into a tree here on that night.

Ansi and Anjana died on the spot, while a third person, Ashiq, succumbed to his injuries in hospital a few days later. Abdul Rahman, who was driving the car and also suffered injuries, is now the only witness of the incident.

Rahman is presently out of hospital but the police have arrested him under charges of "involuntary manslaughter".

Though the probe team recovered the hard disk of the CCTV footage at the hotel, it failed to get any visuals of the party, raising suspicions.

And when on Wednesday the hotel owner came with hard disks, they did not contain anything that the police was looking for. Questioning of the staff by the police revealed that the hard disks were removed by the owner himself.

Two employees who are believed to have destroyed the hard disks by throwing it in the nearby river were brought to the area and after a search, nothing was recovered and then the police probe team went ahead and recorded the arrest of Vayalatin and five of his staff members under charges of destroying evidence.

The police team, after several days of probe, found that there was an "unpleasant" incident during the party. Before things could take an ugly turn, the youngsters had left the hotel.

Later it was found out that Rahman was driving under the influence of alcohol.

It was on their way back that the car, after hitting a two-wheeler, lost control and turned turtle.

However, police found that there was a vehicle following the car carrying the two women.

During interrogation, the driver of the car said that victims' car was going at a breakneck speed.

According to reports, the driver of the car which followed the other car, had called up and informed the hotel owner about the accident.

The police were suspicious of the manner in which Vayalatin was going about the whole incident after the accident took place.

Earlier in the day Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan who hails from the district, said that a special team has to be appointed in the probe as even after two weeks of the incident, not much progress had been achieved in the case.

IANS