A hotel owner and his five staff were arrested on Wednesday by police probing the death of three persons, including two models, in a car accident in Kerala's Kochi on November 1.
Police said owner of "No 18 hotel" at Fort Kochi, Roy J Vayalat and five hotel staff were arrested for allegedly destroying vital digital evidence wanted in connection with the probe into the accident and death of three people, including Miss South India Ansi Kabeer and Miss Kerala 2019 runner-up Anjana Shajan.
The victims had attended a programme in the hotel before the car crash on the night of November 1.
The arrests were recorded after interrogating all of them yesterday and today.
They have been charged under Section 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), police said.
Allegedly as per the direction of Roy, the hotel staff destroyed the digital evidence, including CCTV visuals of the programmes attended by the victims in the hotel, they said.
The owner on Tuesday had reportedly produced the digital video record (DVR) of the CCTV cameras installed at the party hall and parking area of the hotel.
When he appeared before the investigation again on Wednesday, the police visited the hotel along with him as part of the probe.
Earlier in the day, Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, VD Satheesan, urged the government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the car crash that killed three persons, including two models, "as local police probing the case are trying to protect someone."
Talking to reporters in Kozhikode, Mr Satheesan said he has got some information that mystery shrouds the car crash in which the models were killed in Kochi.
"A Special Investigation Team should be appointed to investigate the incident", he said, alleging that the Kochi city police probing the case was trying to protect someone.
The family of a victim has also urged the police to clear the mystery behind the car accident through a proper investigation.
Ansi Kabeer (24), who hails from Thiruvananthapuram and Anjana Shajan (25), a Thrissur native, were killed when their car allegedly swerved in a bid to avoid hitting a motorcyclist in Kochi at 1 AM on November 1.
One among the two other passengers in the car who were injured in the accident died later.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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