The watchman of Urvashi building where Sippy resided on the 17th floor stumbled across the body in the compound behind the building. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II) Param Bir Singh, the police are still trying to probe whether it was homicide or suicide but have ruled out any underworld connection to the death.

Forensic experts who visited the site around noon today said that rigor mortis had just set in then. Rigor mortis sets in about ten to 12 hours after death, said Singh, placing the time of death somewhere around midnight Friday. But surprisingly, the police were informed only at 7.30 in the morning. The police said it was clear that Sippy had fallen from a great height. Whether that fall was before or after death iswhat the police has now to establish.

However, Maya Sippy, Vijay's wife, ruled out murder. In a late-night fax message to this paper, she said: ``The assumptions made in the press with regard to my husband's death are completely false and baseless. There were no stab wounds as alleged. A forensic expert was in the apartment today conducting extensive investigations and mock-up falls. After these investigations it seems probable that my husband ended his life as he was also in a deeply depressed state for the last one month.''

The Malabar Hill police station handling the case confirmed that there were no weapon marks on the body. The preliminary post mortem report from JJ Hospital revealed ``multiple injuries on vital organs,'' the police said. In the last two years, Sippy was known to be facing a severe financial crisis. The police are probing this aspect too. This is also the second incidence in the film industry of death due to a fall. Film actress Divya Bharati had similarly fallen to death in1994.

``The suspicious thing is that though the body was found lying on the window side of the building, no one bothered to inform the police for so long,'' the police said. Police are also questioning neighbours, relatives and the building watchman.