They closed my car's door, threatened with a machete: Kalabhavan Sobhi recounts Balabhaskar accident

Kochi: It’s been two years since Balabhaskar passed away in a fatal road accident, but the shroud of mystery surrounding his premature death continues to persist.

Some family members have all along alleged that he was killed.

Now, suspicions have also been raised that there could be some common thread linking the gold smuggling case unearthed at the Trivandrum International Airport on July 5 and his death.

Kalabhavan Sobi was at the spot of accident where Balabhaskar's car crashed into a tree. He recounted what he saw to Manorama Crime Story:

I was on my way to Tirunelveli from Chalakudy on the day of the incident. Around 12:30am, I felt sleepy. I stopped the car at Mangalapuram (near Thiruvananthapuram) and went to sleep. At about 3:15am, a few people arrived there in a white Scorpio. It was followed by a blue Scorpio. People got out from both the vehicles.

One of them broke the glass of one of the Scorpios. Later, a white Innova arrived at the spot.

There were about 10-12 people in all. Since, I felt it would be wise to leave the place, I continued my journey. Soon a speeding vehicle from the Thiruvananthapuram side passed my car. I couldn’t figure out what model it was due to the high speed.  

Almost 1.5 km later, I reached the spot, where Balabhaskar had met with the accident. A blue vehicle was lying overturned.

When I see an accident, I stop to help. When I slowed my vehicle to get down, a few men arrived and banged my car door shut. They banged on the bonnet, produced a machete, shouted and asked me to leave. 

I vividly remember the three faces. I have repeated this story to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the media. 

When I went a little ahead, I saw a boy running on the left-hand side and another person (a bulky chap) trying to start a bike on the right-hand side. I also remember the faces of those two.  

When I called Balabhaskar’s manager Thampi to inform him about the accident, his response seemed irresponsible. He told me the Attingal CI would call me a little later. 

Before hanging up, he advised me not to inform anyone about the accident and avoid publicising it. He said he was looking into it. 

Neither the Attingal CI nor anyone else called me.

“I have been threatened over this since 2019. People also approached me for mediation. They said I should not speak about what I saw. There were threatening calls that said I would not be alive to testify before the CBI,” Sobi said.