Kochi: A Crime Branch team, probing the November 1 deaths of two models in a high-speed car crash, took Saiju Thankachan to various locations, including the No 18 Hotel at Fort Kochi to collect evidence.

Thankachan, who reportedly chased the car in which the models were travelling after a party in the hotel, was arrested on Friday for tailing the young women with wrongful intent and for endangering the lives by acting in a rash and negligent manner.

Besides the hotel, Thankachan was also taken to Kundannoor Junction, where he had allegedly intercepted the models' car, and Chakkaraparambu, where the car smashed against a tree on the median around 1:30am on November 1, killing both the women -Ansi Kabeer and Anjana Shajan -instantly. Their friend Mohammed Ashique, who was also in the car, died a few days later while undergoing treatment in a city hospital.

Earlier, a court granted investigators the custody of Thankachan for three days. The man had been in hiding after the fatal accident.

Investigators, who probed Thankachan, have received hints that he was a part of a Kozhikode-based racket that regularly smuggled in chemical drugs from Bengaluru to the state.

It was also found that No 18 was Thankachan's regular haunt. He, and his associates, allegedly supplied drugs to hold after-parties that were frequently held in the hotel, according to information received by the enforcement wing of the Excise Department.

Thankachan had earlier told the police that he had given chase with the intention of discouraging the models and their two friends from travelling at night. He said the men who accompanied the models were drunk. Visuals from the CCTV cameras installed along the route, however, picked holes in his statement.

Meanwhile, the Palarivattom police have registered a case against Thankachan based on a complaint of financial cheating of a Kakkanad resident.