Tunisha Sharma was on a video call with Ali for 15 minutes before death: Sheezan Khan's advocate

Mumbai, Jan 10: Actress Tunisha Sharma was on a video call with a man named Ali for 15 minutes before she decided to end her life, lawyers of her co-star Sheezan Khan, arrested on the abetment of suicide charge, has told a court in Palghar in Maharashtra.

Calling their client innocent, Shailendra Mishra and Sharad Rai, counsels for Khan, informed the court their client was innocent and was not connected to the actress' death. They told the court that Bollywood actor Suraj Pancholi, too, had got bail after being accused of abetment of suicide of actor-singer Jiah Khan, who died by suicide in 2013, PTI reported.

According to Khan's legal counsel, Tunisha Sharma was in contact with a man named Ali on a dating app and was in his company between December 21 and 23, just before her death.

Even before her alleged suicide, she was on a video call for 15 minutes with Ali, the counsels claimed in the court and sought a probe into this angle. The counsels also said no suicide note was found at the spot.

On Monday, District and Additional Sessions Judge at Vasai RD Deshpande heard the arguments of both prosecution and defence and accepted the request for time put forward by Sharma's counsel and adjourned the hearing on the bail plea till January 11.

Appearing for the Sharma family, advocate Tarun Sharma sought time from the court to go through documents and prepare his defence, which was allowed by the judge.

The budding actress was found dead on the sets of her ongoing TV show 'Alibaba - Dastaan-e-Kabul' on Saturday. Based on a complaint filed by Sharma's mother, the Waliv police registered a case against Sheezan M Khan, under Indian Penal Code Section 306 (abetment of suicide) and arrested him, the station house office of Waliv police station told news agency PTI. Her mother in her complaint claimed Sharma and Khan were in love and blamed the latter for her daughter's extreme step.

The autopsy report of actress Tunisha Sharma has specified 'hanging' as the cause of death.

Going by the First Information Report, the two actors were in a relationship and had ended their relationship 15 days ago. Tunisha Sharma was reportedly under stress, and it is suspected that's what drove her to the edge, said the Mumbai police.

Tunisha's mother Vanita Sharma alleged that Khan was forcing her to convert to Islam when they were in a relationship.

Speaking with news agency ANI earlier, Vanita Sharma said,''There were changes in Tunisha's behaviour. Sheezan forced her to follow Islam. She also posted on her Instagram that morning but what happened after that, we have no idea."