Pratyusha Banerjee suicide: Cops point to ‘financial distress’, bank accounts being studied

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According to officers privy to the investigation, the police are scrutinising at least three of Pratyusha Banerjee’s bank accounts, all of them joint ones. Two of the branches are in Mumbai’s Ville Parle and Santacruz areas.

Meanwhile, Rahul Singh was hospitalised Sunday afternoon after he complained of breathing problems while police were questioning him for the second day. Sources said Singh complained of chest pain and low blood pressure and was taken to Shree Sai Hospital in Kandivli.

“No reason has been found yet to make a cognisable complaint of the incident and neither have we recovered any suicide note. We are studying Banerjee’s bank accounts. The suicide is believed to be due to severe financial distress. According to the statements of Banerjee’s family, she did not have a lot of money as she did not have a regular income,” said an officer, refusing to disclose the balance in her accounts. The officer added that the police would check as to who were the beneficiaries of the joint accounts, and the kind of loans Banerjee took over the years.

“Singh has also told us that he had recently given a large installment to help Banerjee with a personal loan. We are trying to check that with the bank details. We have not found evidence to book Singh yet,” said the police officer.

According to the family, Banerjee used to live with her parents in Kandivli but shifted to Singh’s residence in Goregaon, where he has been residing for nearly 10 years, after they moved back to Jameshedpur.

A police team visited his house, where the suicide took place. “Doctors who conducted Banerjee’s postmortem believe that it is a case of suicide but we are checking everything. We even used a measuring tape to calculate the distance of the ceiling fan to the sofa that Banerjee supposedly used to climb on to hang herself,” said an officer.