Noting that the city police is conducting a "fair and proper" probe into the alleged suicide of TV star Pratyusha Banerjee, the Bombay High Court today turned down the plea of the actress' mother Shoma Banerjee for transfer of the case to the Crime Branch.
The court, however, kept pending Shoma's petition and directed the suburban Bangur Nagar police to file a progress report on the probe on May 4 before it.
"After perusing the records and investigation papers we are of the view that there is no need to transfer probe to any other agency. We do not feel that the police is doing any unfair or improper investigation as alleged by the petitioner (Shoma). We also do not think that the police is showing any favour to the accused (Pratyusha's partner Rahul Raj Singh)," a division bench of justices N H Patil and A M Badar said.
"The police is on the right track. Any investigation requires time. Especially in such cases where there is no direct evidence there is more pressure on the police. The investigation is at a sensitive stage," the court said.
The bench also noted that the Deputy Commissioner of Police concerned is supervising the probe.
Picking holes in the ongoing probe, Shoma's lawyer K T Thomas said, "The investigation being done by the local police is misleading and we fear that in future it would be scuttled" and sought transfer of the case to the crime branch under the supervision of the Commissioner of Police.
He further said that Shoma had told the police that she fears that her daughter was "murdered".
Public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde, however, argued that Shoma in her first statement to the police on April 2 said she did not have any suspicion on anyone. "Only on April 5, the police received a complaint from the actress' parents against Rahul," Shinde said.
He said the police had already recorded the statements of 26 witnesses including the deceased's relatives, friends, neighbours, maids and bank managers where the deceased had accounts.
"Two mobile phones belonging to the Pratyusha and one belonging to the accused Rahul has been seized by the police and sent to the forensic lab. The postmortem report suggests ligature marks on the deceased's neck but the exact cause of death will be revealed only after we get the viscera report," Shinde said.
The prosecutor also told the court that Pratyusha was pregnant.
"According to our probe, Pratyusha had approached one Dr Shinde for treatment. We will record this doctor's statement to ascertain what treatment she had undergone and if she had taken any medicines from him," Shinde said.
Stating that the probe would be completed in two months,
Shinde asserted it cannot be said that the investigation is tainted and unfair.
The court sought to know how much time the police would take to complete the entire probe and if the police have arrived at any opinion on the basis of whatever investigation has done so far.
"Have you (police) arrived at any opinion as to if there was an intentional aid or abetment by the accused? Admittedly the deceased and accused were staying together so there is bound to be number of phone calls between them and hence this may not show abetment. Messages sent and received may indicate if there was abetment," the court said.
Pratyusha's parents have been alleging that their daughter could not have committed suicide and that her partner Rahul Singh must have murdered her.
Last week, they had written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking a probe into her death by Mumbai Police Crime Branch following which the state government said it may be done.
Rahul is at present out on pre-arrest bail.
Pratyusha, who shot to fame as 'Anandi' in celebrated drama series "Balika Vadhu", allegedly committed suicide on April 1 by hanging herself on the ceiling fan in her apartment in Kandivali on the western suburb of Mumbai.
Police had booked her boyfriend actor-producer Rahul Raj Singh for abetting her suicide.
