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Celebrity

Bombay High Court discharges Rahul Raj Singh in Pratyusha Banerjee abetment case

The Bombay High Court has discharged actor-producer Rahul Raj Singh from the alleged abetment-of-suicide case of Balika Vadhu star Pratyusha Banerjee, ending the decade-old case at the pre-trial stage with no trial to follow.

By Maya Lindqvist · · 2 min read

Television actor Pratyusha Banerjee in a 2014 event photograph
Bollywood Hungama, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday discharged actor-producer Rahul Raj Singh from the alleged abetment-of-suicide case of television actor Pratyusha Banerjee, ending the decade-old case at the pre-trial stage. No trial will follow, the court ordered.

A single bench of Justice Shivkumar G Dige allowed Singh’s revision plea against the Dindoshi Sessions Court’s August 2023 rejection of his application. The police had filed their chargesheet in 2018.

The court relied significantly on the couple’s recorded final phone call, in which Singh was heard attempting to dissuade Banerjee from taking any extreme step while he was on his way to her apartment.

Singh’s lawyers, senior advocate Aabad Ponda and advocate Shreyansh Mithare, argued that no ingredients of abetment were made out: the last conversation showed the deceased blamed everyone, including her parents; there was no suicide note; the FIR was registered in haste; and allowing a trial to proceed would amount to an “abuse of process”.

Banerjee, who played Anandi in Balika Vadhu, was found dead at her rented apartment in Goregaon, Mumbai, on 1 April 2016, aged 24. Singh was her then-boyfriend and live-in partner. After her mother approached the Bangur Nagar police, the FIR booked Singh for abetment of suicide, assault and criminal intimidation, alleging mental and physical harassment. Singh was granted anticipatory bail by the Bombay High Court in July 2016.

The ruling closes a case that has loomed over the television industry for more than a decade — a sombre reminder of how slowly justice runs its course.

Sources

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