Pratyusha Banerjee suicide: Police quiz boyfriend for clues

Mumbai police on Saturday summoned television actor Rahul Raj Singh for questioning in connection with the alleged suicide of actress Pratyusha Banerjee, an officer said.

“We have called him and he is now with us… We are recording his statement,” Mumbai police spokesperson DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni told IANS.

Singh, a former state-level cricketer who also owns a production house, was the first person to see Pratyusha’s body hanging from the ceiling fan of her flat in Goregaon West on Friday afternoon.

He immediately alerted neighbours and with their help, rushed her to Kokilaben Ambani Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

An investigator said her death may have occurred around 5 p.m. on Friday, but details would be known only after the autopsy report is received.

Singh will be taken to the flat for investigations. Police team is already searching for clues, but no suicide note has been found.

Late Friday evening, the entertainment industry was stunned to learn of the sudden demise of Pratyusha, who was renowned for her role Anandi in the TV serial “Balika Vadhu” with many even dismissing it as an April Fools’ joke.

Hailing from Jharkhand, the 24-year-old was last seen in a role in another TV serial “Sasural Simar Ka” and had earlier participated in the fifth season of the reality dance show “Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa”, “Bigg Boss 7” and hosted some episodes of “Savdhaan India”.

Her parents reached Mumbai on Saturday morning to take charge of her body, but details of her funeral — whether it will be performed here or her birth place Jamshedpur — are not yet known.

The glamour industry is rife with speculation about her disturbed personal life, her suspected uneasy relationship with Rahul and other aspects that may have prompted her to resort to the extreme step.

Prior to Pratyusha, several high-profile suicides of several young women rocked the entertainment capital of India, including the likes of Nafisa Joseph, Kuljeet Randhawa, Viveka Babajee, Jiah Khan, Shikha Joshi and Ruby Singh, in the past 10 years.