 "'Pilots are mentally strong:' Air India pilot's uncle refutes suicide claim")
The uncle of Air India pilot Srishti Tuli, found dead at her Mumbai home, has reportedly told mediapersons that she couldn’t have killed herself and looked happy in the CCTV footage of her going to the room with her boyfriend.
"Then what changed in 15 minutes? She couldn't have killed herself. Pilots are mentally strong," he told NDTV in a TV interview.
In what is suspected to be a suicide, Srishti Tuli was found dead at her flat in Mumbai's Marol area on November 25. The news channel also cited sources saying that Srishti Tuli made a video call to her boyfriend just before her death, showing him that she was about to hang herself.
Shruti’s boyfriend, Aditya Pandit, has been arrested for abetment to suicide and remains in police custody.
The couple reportedly had an argument after which Aditya Pandit left for Delhi. Srishti is said to have asked him to stay, but when he refused, she allegedly threatened to take her own life. It was after this scuffle that she made the video call, which was the last interaction between them, NDTV reported.
Aditya Pandit reportedly deleted some of his messages with his partner, which the police are now working to recover. To conduct further forensic analysis of the, his phone has been confiscated, the report added. The two are said to have exchanged many phone calls before the tragic incident and Shristi’s phone had received multiple missed calls after it was recovered.
In his defence, Aditya has claimed that he attempted to stop Shristi from taking the extreme step and called her several times on her phone. He said he used a locksmith to gain access to her flat when the door was found locked upon his arrival.
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Shristi’s family charges Aditya with murder
Raising doubts about the circumstances of her death, Srishti’s family has alleged that she may have been murdered and did not commit suicide. They claim that Srishti had spoken with her mother and aunt just 15 minutes before taking the tragic step, and looked happy. “If she died by suicide, what did he do to push her to this point?” Srishti’s uncle Vivek Tuli asked.
“She spoke to her family, and 15 minutes later, she was dead. What happened in that time?”
Speaking to NDTV, Srishti’s uncle described her as "a lively and bold girl", and very motivated by her grandfather, a soldier who died for his country in the 1971 war. "She wanted to be a fighter pilot but her daadi did not allow her to go into the armed forces. So, she said being a commercial pilot is also wearing a uniform and so she chose that option," the channel quoted him saying.
Refuting the claims of the police that his niece died by suicide, he went on "... see, Srishti was very happy at 11.30, when she called her mother and said everything is very good. She said she had come back from a flight and had to fly again in a few days. In the CCTV feed also, which police showed me, she was so happy going upstairs with that guy..."
"They are very well-trained with to deal with pressure... they are mentally very strong. How can they be afraid of something? It is not suicide... it is cold-blooded, planned murder," he added.
Vivek told the police that Aditya Pandit would harass her often and even humiliate her in public. Aditya reportedly pressured Srishti to change her food habits, her family alleged to the police.
Aditya Pandit has been arrested under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhit section 108 (abetment of suicide). He was later produced in a court which remanded him in police custody for four days, the officials said.