Pratyusha suicide case: SC refuses to quash bail of Rahul Raj

New Delhi, May 30: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to quash anticipatory bail of actor-producer Rahul Raj Singh, accused of abetting the suicide of 24-year-old TV actress Pratyusha Banerjee, saying the last conversation between the two shows they were "intensely in love with each other".

A vacation bench of justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy refused to entertain the petition of Pratyusha's mother Soma Bannerjee saying there was no strong and compelling ground to cancel the anticipatory bail granted to Singh.

"The last conversation between the two shows that they were intensely in love with each other. Without any strong and compelling grounds, anticipatory bail cannot be cancelled. If the probe agency finds during investigation that it is a case of section 302 (murder) of IPC and accused needs to be taken into custody, it can move to High Court," the bench said.

The court said that there was no suicide note also to attribute any role to the accused. Counsel for Pratyusha's mother said that custodial interrogation of Singh is required, as there are discrepancies in the investigation and he may tamper with evidence.

The bench, however, dismissed the petition as withdrawn. Earlier, this month, the mother of the TV actress, who was found dead at her residence in Mumbai in mysterious circumstances, had moved the apex court seeking to cancel anticipatory bail granted by the Bombay High Court to Singh.

In her plea, she had said that Singh should be taken into custody as the investigation is still on in the case and there is likelihood that evidence could be tampered by him. It was contended that there were several deep injury marks on the body of the deceased and panchnama had several discrepancies.

The High Court had on April 25 granted anticipatory bail to Singh who has denied the allegations levelled against him. The police had earlier filed a report before the High Court in which it had alleged that Singh, who was staying with Pratyusha at a flat in Goregaon in Mumbai, used to assault her and borrow money from her.

The 'Balika Badhu' fame actress was found hanging at her residence in Goregaon on April 1 and was rushed to a hospital by Singh in Andheri where she was declared dead.

PTI