Police to court: Solanki apologised to Khatri on WhatsApp, said he was leaving Mumbai

Maintaining that there is no justified ground to seek his further custody, the court sent Khatri to judicial custody till April 29.

The police said in its remand plea that the state forensic science laboratory had sent it the advanced copy of its report on some WhatsApp chats between Khatri and Solanki. The laboratory is yet to submit a final report on the analysis of the contents of Solanki and Khatri’s phones.

The police submitted before the court four chats sent by Solanki to Khatri. The chats stated – “Hii Arman”, “Bhai bat karni hai tere se”, “Maf kar de mereko aage se kuchh nahi hoga” and “Bhai, main ghar jaa raha hoo Mumbai chhod ke”.

Special Public Prosecutor Veena Shelar, while seeking Khatri’s further custody, said that these chats were received late Friday and Khatri has to be questioned about its context. She added that Solanki saying that he wants to leave Mumbai shows how troubled he was.

While the police did not give the dates on which these texts were sent, they alleged that the events that took place between February 8 and 12 – when Solanki jumped off the seventh floor refuge area of his hostel building at IIT – led to his suicide.

The police have alleged that Solanki had made a communal remark against Khatri, following which the latter had threatened him with a paper cutter. The police sought Khatri’s further custody to question him about the texts and for further investigation.

Special Judge A P Kanade, refusing to grant custody of Khatri to the Mumbai Police SIT, said: “…No justified ground is made out to secure the further presence of the accused with police.”
Khatri’s lawyer Dinesh Gupta then submitted a bail application on his behalf. Khatri sought bail on grounds that there is no evidence to show that he had abetted Solanki’s suicide.

The plea added that there was no direct or indirect evidence against him and Solanki’s parents had neither named him nor have they said that Solanki had told them about Khatri’s threat.

The plea further said that neither an interim report by IIT-Bombay nor the initial probe by the Powai police had found Khatri involved in the suicide.