Kerala High Court orders a further CBI investigation into violinist Balabhaskar's death

14 October 2026

Justice G. Girish of the Kerala High Court has allowed a revision petition filed by the parents of violinist Balabhaskar and ordered further investigation into his death.
The Court directed the CBI to entrust the further investigation to an officer of proven integrity, not below the rank of Additional Superintendent of Police.
The order, in K.C. Unni and Anr. v. State of Kerala and Ors., Crl.R.P. No. 214/2026, records that the agency treated earlier directions of 2022 in a casual and lackadaisical manner by deputing an Inspector for the further probe.
The Court held that the approach taken was inconsistent with Section 173(8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which governs further investigation.
A coordinate bench had in 2022 pointed to twenty suspicious circumstances and ordered a further probe, including into whether a conspiracy lay behind the accident.
The car accident took place on 25 September 2018 while the family was returning from a temple in Thrissur; the couple's one-and-a-half-year-old daughter died at the scene and Balabhaskar died about a week later.