Payal Tadvi suicide: Bombay HC orders bail plea hearing to be recorded

The Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered to video record further proceedings of the hearing on the bail applications of the three accused in the Payal Tadvi suicide case.

The High Court has directed the registry to make the necessary arrangement regarding the same. The matter will next be heard on July 30.

The counsel of the trio, Advocate Abad Ponda said, "Now the charge sheet is the case has been filed. So tampering of evidence cannot happen. Charge sheet says that images of suicide note were recovered from Payal's phone. The accused cannot tamper with the dying declaration. One accused is from Madhya Pradesh, second from Amravati and third from Akola. All three doctors have been suspended from Nair hospital. So, the accused can't affect further investigation. They are behind bars for the last 59 days now."

 

Citing the content of Tadvi's suicide note, Ponda said, "The deceased did not mention anything about the casteist remark in her suicide note. The suicide note is all work-related. No mention of any caste."

The court observed that a formal recording set up will take time.

The victim's lawyer, Gunaratna Sadavarte, said that the trial court has ordered that all the proceedings should be video recorded.

The court later asked both the sides to clear the air about it and make their submissions about the video recording first.

"If you would have told me about the video recording order, I would have made some arrangements by now. After three-four hearings you are telling me this. We could have saved time," Justice DS Naidu said.

Tadvi, who belonged to the Scheduled Tribe community, ended her life in her hostel room at BYL Nair Hospital here on May 22, allegedly after facing harassment from her seniors due to her caste.

The Forensic Department had recovered a suicide note left behind by Tadvi on her phone.

The post-mortem examination report of Tadvi's death revealed the evidence of a ligature mark on her neck. Her family alleged that three of her seniors ragged and hurled casteist abuses at her, forcing her to take the extreme step.

The trio -- Hema Ahuja, Ankita Khandelwal, and Bhakti Mehre -- were booked under the charges of abetment of suicide and various provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in connection with this.