Police team goes in Kalabhavan Mani's money trail
SIT to check late actor's financial dealings with aides.
THRISSUR: The police team investigating the mysterious death of actor Kalabhavan Mani has started probing the financial transactions done through the bank accounts of the actor and his close aides, who are presently in custody.
The move comes in the wake of the allegations raised by Mani's family that a part of the remuneration received by him through stage programmes often went missing from his guest house, 'Paadi' in Chalakkudy.
"My brother got '2 lakh to 3 lakh for each stage programme and he was staying in the outhouse for two weeks before he died on March 6. Normally, the cash he got for his last programme conducted at Sreekrishnapuram in Palakkad on February 29 should have been there in the outhouse. But it was missing during the police inspection after my brother died," Mr R.L.V. Ramakrishnan, Mani's brother, told DC.
He also said that on earlier occasions, Mani had ousted workers from 'Paadi' after finding the money missing. The actor's manager Joby Sebastian had said that he had handed over the cash after every programme to Mani.
The new head of the investigating team, Crime Branch SP P.N. Unnirajan, who visited the outhouse on Sunday, told mediapersons that the team was yet to reach a conclusion whether the actor's death was suicide or homicide. Thrissur IG M. R. Ajith Kumar held a meeting of the investigating team to review the progress of the inquiry.
Though four of the close friends of Mani-- Arun, Vipin, Murugan and Patru Vinu-- are still in police custody, the cops are yet to get any lead to register their arrest. Sources said that after questioning them at an undisclosed station, the cops were verifying their statements.
Mani's relatives have however denied the reports of the recovery of pesticide bottles from near his ancestral home in Chalakkduy, a km from ‘Paadi’. Meanwhile, state BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan came down heavily on the police saying that even after two weeks of the actor’s death, it has not been able to find any lead.