Mumbai, April 8: The pre-arrest bail plea of TV actor- producer Rahul Raj Singh, booked for abetment of his girlfriend actress Pratyusha Banerjee’s suicide, was Thursday rejected by a local court after the complainant alleged it could be a “pre-planned murder.”Hours after Dindoshi sessions court judge Khwaja Farooq Ahmed dismissed Rahul’s application, police reached the Kandivali hospital where he has been undergoing treatment and inquired about his current health condition.On possibility of Rahul’s arrest, an official said the police visited the hospital to update themselves on his health..
Earlier, opposing Rahul’s anticipatory bail plea in the court, the complainant’s lawyer Falguni Brahmbhatt said, “We suspect that it could be murder and it needs to be probed. The entire incident could be pre-planned.”
She argued as to why Rahul took Pratyusha all the way to Andheri (from their residence in suburban Gore Gaon after she was found hanging), instead of a nearby hospital. She also sought to know why he later fled from the hospital.
“Why didn’t Rahul call police or take picture of the body before untying it from the fan,” she further asked. Rahul’s counsel Samir Sheikh said Pratyusha’s parents filed an FIR later though they did not make any allegation against him in their first statement to police. He said that Pratyusha didn’t leave a suicide note blaming Rahul, the television producer-cum-actor, for her death, and also there were no marks on her body other than the ligature wound.
Following the arguments by both sides, the judge rejected Rahul’s anticipatory bail application.The 24-year-old actress, who shot to fame for her role as Anandi in hit TV series “Balika Vadhu”, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself inside her flat at Goregoan area of western suburbs on April 1.
Rahul was booked under IPC sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 504, 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), who has been in hospital since Sunday after he complained of chest pain.
According to the doctors attending on him, “he still has suicidal tendencies”.
Police, who had already recorded Rahul’s statement, are also trying to ascertain whether Pratyusha, who hailed from Jamshedpur, was in financial trouble or had any dispute with Rahul. Some reports suggested that the actress was depressed over not getting roles in TV serials.
Her parents had alleged that their daughter took the extreme step as she was subjected to torture by Rahul. A few of Pratyusha’s friends, who claimed to have evidence against Rahul, had earlier recorded their statements with the police. Pratyusha’s maid, in her statement, had claimed Rahul used to physically and mentally harass the TV actress, police said.
