THRISSUR: The special police team probing the the death of actor Kalabhavan Mani, headed by Thrissur Rural SP K Karthick and DySP Sudarsan, recorded statement of several witnesses including an actor from Idukki who were with the departed actor on Friday, in connection with the incident.
Mani was reportedly consuming alcohol in the outhouse near his house when he was found ill. The postmortem conducted at the Thrissur Medical College Hospital on Monday confirmed liver damage. The postmortem report, meanwhile, pointed out that the possible presence of methanol could be confirmed only after the toxicology report is made available, which could take around one month’s time.
Earlier, the police had registered a case under Section-174 of the CrPC (Unnatural Death).
Kalabhavan Mani passed away at a private hospital in Kochi, where he was brought in a very serious condition on Saturday evening. The Kochi City Police informed the Chalakudy Police about possible presence of poison in his blood. The actor had passed away before the Chalakudy Police could record his statement. Meanwhile, the police confiscated several bottles of alcohol from the outhouse. Later, forensic and scientific experts visited the spot for further probe. Also, Mani’s viscera and blood samples were collected for chemical examination. Speaking to ‘Express’ at Mani’s Chennathunadu home, his friends and relatives said the perception of the public was ‘admiration for a self-made man who made several contributions to society.’ Kalabhavan Mani, who drove rickshaw in the morning and worked in the night as a mimicry artist during his early life, had not forgotten his roots even after fame came beckoning. “An entire new floor of the Chalakudy police station was donated by him. He also donated a new school bus to Chalakkudy East Girls High School, where he studied upto Class-VII when it was a mixed school. After that, he studied at Chalakudy Boys High School upto Class-X,” said Shaheer, a close friend of Mani.
Mysterious ‘Pady’
One of the major mysteries over Kalabhavan Mani’s death is ‘Pady,’ his outhouse overlooking the Chalakkudy river. “Made of bamboo, the small house was Mani’s meeting point for sharing drinks and chatting with his innumerable friends,” say family members. According to his close friends, Mani who was very healthy and an exceptionally strong man had been growing physically weak in the past months. What his friends pegged as due to alcohol consumption, the entire routine of the actor had become upset. When ‘Express’ spoke to one of the closest neighbours, he said he did not notice anything abnormal in the the past two days at the Pady outhouse. “On Sunday, it was ghostly silence and there was nobody in the area. Usually, the entire area is thronged by visitors and friends day in and day out. I came to know about his death only on Sunday, through television,” he said.
Possible Presence of Poison in Blood
The Kochi City Police informed the Chalakkudy Police about the possible presence of poison in his blood. Kalabhavan Mani had passed away before the Chalakkudy Police could record his statement.