This story is from July 21, 2016
chargesheet
running into 1,011 pages was filed against actor-producer Rahul Raj Singh at the Borivli court on Wednesday in connection with the suicide of his girlfriend,TV
actress Pratyusha Banerjee. Rahul has been slapped with charges of abetment, assault and intimidation. He was present in court with a family friend, actor Sahila Chaddha, on Wednesday. Out on anticipatory bail, Rahul has been told to appear before the court on July 30. Pratyusha was found hanging in her Goregaon flat on April 1. A bulk of the chargesheet comprises statements of witnesses, call data records, bank statements, hospital papers and forensic findings. The police have banked heavily on audio recordings of telephonic conversations between Pratyusha and Rahul. One is about the two fighting. In another, on the day she committed suicide, Pratyusha said, “Watch what I’m going to do now.” To this, Rahul had replied that he was on his way home and she shouldn’t do anything before talking to him. The police are banking on autopsy reports to back their claim of assault. Pratyusha had complained to her relatives about injury marks on her arms and legs days before her death. These marks have been mentioned in the autopsy report. Statements of 45 witnesses have been recorded, including actor Kamya Punjabi, event organiser Leena Dias, Pratyusha’s uncle Dipankar Banerjee, an astrologer, a real estate agent and a cook who was the first to find her body. Panjabi mentions visiting Pratyusha’s flat on her birthday in 2015 and not finding Rahul to be a good influence. She states she was in Delhi when Pratyusha called her and the two decided to meet in Mumbai on her return. But by the time she returned, Pratyusha had ended her life. Dias states Pratyusha called her around 3am the day she died and said she wanted to get out of her relationship with Rahul and she couldn't live that way. The police have also attached a statement of actor Saloni Sharma, Rahul’s ex-girlfriend, who had assaulted Pratyusha in her building. Sharma states she had gone there to demand money Rahul owed her and retaliated only after the couple struck her. Pratyusha’s income-tax returns and a loan agreement for a sum of Rs 5 lakh she borrowed from an individual find mention in the chargesheet. The final report in the chargesheet includes excerpts from the statement of Pratyusha’s mother, Soma, who said Rahul accused her of practising black magic and trying to create obstacles in the couple's wedding plans. “In 2010, Pratyusha came to Mumbai with her father and got a role in Balika Vadhu, the show that catapulted her to fame. In September 2013, she bagged a reality TV show and was paid Rs 35 lakh. In June 2015, she met Rahul, who claimed to own properties in Mumbai and Ranchi, and two production houses,” Soma says in her statement. “In October 2015, Rahul vacated his Versova home and started living with us in Kandivli. He and Pratyusha got an offer to appear jointly as a couple in a reality TV show. But Rahul would fight with Pratyusha and suspected her of being in touch with her former boyfriend.” According to the statement, Rahul told Pratyusha her parents were making no money of their own and were clinging on to her savings. This had hurt Soma and her husband Shankar, who moved back to their hometown in Jamshedpur in January 2016. They, in turn, accused Rahul of using Pratyusha’s money. On Wednesday, Soma said she was unaware of the chargesheet. The case was investigated by inspector Deepak Phatangare.