A suburban court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail of television producer and accused in the Pratyusha Banerjee alleged suicide case, Rahul Raj Singh, triggering the possibility of his arrest in the coming days for allegedly abetting the suicide of the actress.
Though the court had cleared decks for Rahul’s arrest, the police could not take him to custody during the day, as the doctors attending on him at the Shree Sai Hospital at Kandivali in north Mumbai told the investigators that they could not discharge him from the hospital at this stage.
Sources close to Rahul said that ahead of his imminent arrest in the Pratyusha Banerjee alleged suicide case, he would move the Bombay High Court for an anticipatory bail.
Earlier in the day, Sessions Judge at the Dindoshi suburban court Khwaja Farooq Ahmed dismissed the anticipatory bail application of Rahul, against whom the Bangurngar police registered a registered a case for allegedly abetting Pratyusha’s suicide and the actress’ parents Shankar and Soma Banerjee formally filed an FIR in the case.
Opposing Rahul’s anticipatory bail please, Banerjees’ lawyer Falguni Brahmbhatt told the court: “We suspect that it could be murder and it needs to be probed. The entire incident could be pre—planned.”
On April 1, Pratyusha (24) was found hanging from a ceiling fan at her seventh floor flat in Harmony residency building at Goregaon in north Mumbai, She was taken by Rahul to Kokilaben Ambani Hospital, where she was declared dead on admission later that evening.
Rahul, whom the investigators see as a logical suspect in the case, has come under the intense scanner of the police for his strained love relationship with Pratyusha.
The post-mortem, conducted on Pratyusha’s body, had earlier ruled out any foul play in the actress’ alleged suicide. However, on Tuesday, the Bangurnagar police went ahead and booked registered a case against Rahul under sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
Earlier, during her arguments before the Dindoshi Sessions court, lawyer Falguni questioned the very conduct of Rahul, after he found his girlfriend hanging from a ceiling fan at her Goregaon fat.
“After finding Pratyusha hanging from a ceiling fan, why did Rahul take Pratyusha all the way from Goregaon flat to Kokilaben Hospital at Andheri instead of a nearby hospital. Why did he flee from the hospitalIJ. Why didn’t Rahul call police or take picture of the body before untying it from the fanIJ” Falguni asked.
Appearing for Rahul, his counsel Samir Sheikh sought to pick holes in the arguments made by Falguni, by wanting to know as to why Pratyusha’s parents did not make any allegation against his client in their first statement to police and then why did they file the FIR against him later.
Sheikh also told the court that Pratyusha had not left a suicide note blaming Rahul for her death. He also argued that there were no marks on her body other than the ligature wound.
After hearing both the sides, the judge rejected Rahul’s anticipatory bail pleas.
A few hours after the Dindhoshi court rejected Rahul’s anticipatory bail plea, a team of police officials that visited the Shree Sai Hospital at Kandivli, where Rahul is undergoing treatment for hypertension and low blood pressure.
The doctors attending on Rahul told the police that they would take some more time before they discharged him from the hospital. The investigators, who had apparently gone to arrest Rahul, returned empty handed.
Meanwhile, Pratyusha’s parent reiterated on Thursday that they suspected Rahul’s hand in their daughter’s death.
At a news conference held on Tuesday night, Pratyusha’s father had accused Rahul of having “mentally and physically” tortured his daughter. “Pratyusha wanted to get married. But, unfortunately she met a wrong guy in Rahul. Rahul is a fraud and he has destroyed many lives. We don’t want him to harm anyone else. She was tortured mentally and physically and was very scared,” Pratiyusha’s father had said, adding that Rahul and his father were managing Pratyusha’s finances.
“Rahul should be hanged or given life sentence and made to suffer for his entire lifetime. I have heard he destroyed many girls’ lives,” Pratyusha’s mother Soma had said.