Rahul Raj Singh’s pre-arrest bail plea rejected

The anticipatory bail of Rahul Raj Singh, boyfriend of late actress Pratyusha Banerjee who committed suicide, was rejected in the Dindoshi sessions court on Thursday. Meanwhile, Rahul, a film producer, was admitted in the ICU of a private hospital in Kandivali (east). Immediately after the bail application was rejected, police officials from Bangur Nagar police station visited the hospital to enquire about Rahul’s health condition. They left after staying for about an hour. Till late Thursday evening, no arrest had been made in the case.

Vikas Singh Gor, Rahul’s advocate, said they are now planning to move the high court.

The anticipatory bail hearing of Rahul took place in the Dindoshi sessions court at about 12 pm. During the arguments defence lawyers said Pratyusha had taken loan from five banks and just seven days before her death a recovery agent had visited her, but Rahul intervened in the matter and promised the agent to return the money. Advocate Zamir Sheikh, Rahul’s counsellor on behalf of advocate Ashok Sarogi, said the deceased did not want to blame anyone, so she never left a suicide note.

On the other hand, Falguni Brahammabhatt, presenting Pratyusha’a family in court said, “Rahul tried to revive her in front of a CCTV camera. But first aid is always given at the spot. Why did he come outside and then try Was there a suicide note or other evidence which Rahul may have destroyed ” Ms Brahammabhatt also alleged that Rahul had “escaped from the hospital” after admitting Pratyusha, which shows that he had “bad intentions”. “He never informed the police and avoided clicking pictures of the spot in order to inform police about the crime scene,” stated Ms Brahammabhatt adding that, “We suspect that it could be a murder and it needs to be probed. The entire incident could be pre-planned.”

The defence lawyers argued, “The deceased could have been overburdened with loan.”

Public prosecutor Datta Mudiganti claimed that Pratytusha was a senior actor and had sufficient income. “She had some injuries on her body which looks like she faced assault,” he said.

Ms Brahamabhatt also informed the court that the police is yet to take the statement of Pratyusha’s one friend who she had spoken to on the night of March 31. Pratyusha committed suicide on April 1. The public prosecutor claimed that since November as much as much as Rs 24 lakh was withdrawn from Pratyusha’s account and the police is not sure who withdrew the money. Ms Brahammabhatt also said Rahul was involved with other women and it led to fights between the couple. Following the arguments, Judge Khawaja Farooq Ahmed rejected the application.

Meanwhile, one of the doctors treating Rahul said his BP is normal and pulse rate is still high. She said he is still in mental trauma and depression and shows unstable behaviour.

“If everything goes well he will be discharged within 48 to 72 hours,” said Dr Santosh Goyal of Shri Sai Hospital, where Rahul is admitted.

Pratyusha’s parents happy over rahul being denied bail

Sankar Banerjee and Soma Banerjee, parents of Pratyusha Banerjee were happy after Rahul Raj’s bail application was rejected. Talking to The Asian Age, Ms Soma said, “We doubt that it’s a murder.”

According to Ms Soma, who has lodged a police complaint against Rahul, Pratyusha’s boyfriend had never shown good behaviour towards the Banerjee couple and he did not want them to stay in touch with their daughter. “Once when I was staying with Pratyusha, he said I want to do some black magic on them and that’s why I’m not leaving them alone so I decided to return to Jamshedpur, but now I feel it was a huge mistake,” said Ms Soma. She further added, “I wasn’t even aware about their recent address as Rahul used to monitor my daughter’s phone and a few times she called me from another number and informed that she is feeling difficulties in life. I knew that Rahul was troubling her but I never knew that he will go to this extent.”