Pratyusha Banerjee death: Messy end to TV star's life

The stench and clutter that assailed the police as they entered Pratyusha Banerjee's Goregaon apartment on Sunday highlighted how the actress had spent her last few days before committing suicide, with her life and home in shambles.

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Cops found heaps of clothes strewn around the bedroom and liquor bottles and half-empty packets of snacks littered everywhere

This underscores the theory that Pratyusha was depressed; her family and friends said she was upset about dwindling work opportunities and her rocky relationship with boyfriend Rahul Singh, with whom she shared the 2BHK flat at Harmony building. Cops found clothes in disarray on the floor, liquor bottles and cigarette butts strewn around and half-eaten packets of snacks lying around, but the one thing they did not find was the 25-year-old's suicide note.

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Pratyusha Banerjee

A team of cops and forensic experts tried to reconstruct the entire suicide at flat number 703, including the manner in which she hanged herself. The apartment had no AC but there were two fans in the 10x15 hall, and Pratyusha was found hanging from the one closest to the door. The room had a wall-mounted TV and a showcase with the many awards Pratyusha had won, which was probably among the last things she saw. There was also a three-plus-one sofa set.

Prima facie, it seems the actress (famed for her role as Anandi in Balika Vadhu) used the one-seater to get closer to the ceiling fan. The blades of the fan were found intact so it is thought that she might then have tied her dupatta to the middle of the fan and looped the other end around her neck. Sources privy to the investigation who were there at the crime scene reconstruction said Pratyusha might have stood on the edge of the sofa before she jumped and hanged herself.

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Rahul was outside, struggling to enter the flat and asked his neighbour Sunil Mukhiya for help. Mukhiya, a cook, was also present for the crime scene study. He told the cops he had crossed over from his balcony into their apartment and found Pratyusha hanging by her dupatta. The investigators found this was a possible feat.

Mukhiya also explained how he opened the door for Rahul and how the dupatta was cut to bring Pratyusha down, after which Rahul tried to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The police had hoped to find more clues from houses opposite the apartment, but were disappointed to learn the flat faces only an open ground. Meanwhile, they are awaiting the Call Detail Records (CDR) of the mobile phone used by the deceased and Rahul, to ascertain whether he had actually called her from outside, as he claimed in his statement.