KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday submitted before the Kerala High Court that it could not take over the investigation into the suspicious death of actor Kalabhavan Mani, as its hands were full with several other cases.
Meanwhile, the medical board constituted by the State government has filed a report stating that "Mani died of methyl alcohol poisoning." It stated that common pesticides, drugs, alkoloids, metallic and volatile poisons have not been detected in the contents verified by the board.
The report stated that the medical board consisting ten doctors met on March 25 and examined the postmortem certificate, certificate of chemical analysis, examination report from the chemical analysis of Mani’s viscera and blood samples, examination report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, toxicology report from Amritha Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi and histopathology report from Government Medical College, Thrissur.
During the argument of the case, the CBI counsel submitted that it was in no position to take over the Kalabhavan Mani case as it was currently investigating several other cases, and facing a dearth of staff.
The State had informed the court that nothing suspicious has been revealed so far as to assume that Mani’s death was a homicide. It also pointed out that his chances of being poisoned to death had thoroughly been investigated.
The test conducted at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Hyderabad has ruled out pesticide content in the visceral samples of the late actor. The Regional Chemical Examiner's Laboratory at Kakkanad found substances of a pesticide- chlorpyrifos. Following this the suspected samples of blood, urine, viscera and gastric aspirates were sent for detailed examination and quantification in the CFSL Hyderabad. The result revealed the dtetection of only methyle alcohol and ethyl alcohol.
From the post-mortem, it was found that Mani was suffering severe cirrhosis of the liver, jaundice, tuberculosis, kidney dysfunction and severe type two diabetics mellitus. Expert opinion as to whether the combined effect of these conditions can cause death is yet to be obtained.
Discussions regarding the above are on with various medical experts, the State said. The court was considering the petitions filed by Mani's wife, Nimmy and brother RLV Ramakrishnan seeking a CBI probe in the case.