A car chase that began from a high-profile hotel in Kochi and ended with the deaths of three people; allegations of drug peddling and sexual abuse at the hotel; the hotel’s popular owner arrested in a POCSO case and released on bail; the incidents surrounding the ‘No 18 Hotel’ in Fort Kochi since November 1 last year seem like nothing short of a thriller.
Police are now trying to join the dots between these seemingly unrelated events connect ed to this controversial luxury hotel.
The No 18 hotel is known to be a popular getaway among Kerala’s elite, including film personalities and VIPs. It hit the headlines on November 1 last year when former Miss Kerala Ansi Kabeer, 25, and runner-up Anjana Shajan, 26, died in a road accident as their vehicle was reportedly being chased by alleged drug peddler Syju Thankachan after they left the hotel. Ansi and Anjana’s friend, 28-year-old M Ashiq, who was also in the car, died a week later. “All three of them would have been alive if the car chase hadn’t happened,” the police later wrote in the FIR.
Its owner, Roy J Vayalat, is a popular property dealer with connections to top officials. There were hardly any issues surrounding the hotel until the November accident, after which its bar licence was suspended.
A senior official who is now part of a special investigation team (SIT) that is probing matters related to the hotel disclosed that three women have approached them with separate complaints against the place, and cases will soon be filed.
Besides, a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act has now been registered against Vayalat and his friends Anjali Reema Dev and Thankachan — the alleged drug peddler involved in the road mishap — for allegedly assaulting a 17-year-old girl. Their anticipatory bail pleas are coming up in the high court on March 2.
A native of Kozhikode in north Kerala had filed another complaint against Vayalat, alleging that he molested her 17-year-old daughter during a party at the hotel in October last year. She said the assault was filmed and she was threatened that the clip would be circulated if she approached the police.
Incidentally, both Thankachan and Dev were present at the hotel when the assault took place, the victim’s mother alleged. Later, an SIT made both of them co-accused in yet another Pocso case involving the hotel.
Vayalat is also facing a separate case for allegedly destroying CCTV tapes and other digital evidence of a party area of the hotel soon after the road mishap. Vayalat and Thankachan were arrested after the accident, but both managed to secure bail later on.
Also, Dev is facing a separate case for revealing the identity of the minor who was sexually assaulted, for which a Pocso case was slapped on her.
A 20-year-old who visited the hotel has also alleged that she was assaulted. “I went to the hotel about six months ago as part of a modelling assignment. A DJ party was on and I was invited to join it. I was quite reluctant. I was offered a cold drink laced with some substance, and I almost suffered a blackout. Later, I was locked up in a room and assaulted,” she said, adding that after she escaped the hotel the next day, she started receiving threats.
