NEW DELHI, August 5: Zee TV assistant producers Monica Malik (27) and Rajiv Raja (21) were found dead in his car parked inside his INA colony home's garage this morning. The bodies were in the rear seat of the car in a pool of vomit. A red rose, a box of Taj Palace-made chocolates and both their shoes were in the front seat.Raja's car-cleaner this morning discovered the bodies. The car was locked from inside and the key was in the ignition slot. The car cleaner assumed that the duo was unconscious and informed Raja's family who live on the first floor.
Raja's father, who works at the Safdarjung airport, opened the vehicle's door with a duplicate key and rushed Monica and Raja to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where they were declared dead. Both the bodies have been sent for post-mortem.
According to his family, Monica and Raja had gone for a party at the Taj Palace Hotel last night. However, according to Monica's mother, her daughter told that she was on night duty and would not be able to come back home from office before 5 am.
Monica, as assistant producer at Zee's South-Extension office often was on the late night shift and her mother presumed she was at work. A Zee television staffer told Express Newsline that Raja and Monica were known to be seeing each other. The police are said to have recovered from Monica's person a recent letter she wrote to Raja.
The police, however, would not say anything beyond that they are ``not ruling out anything: murder, suicide or accidental death.''
The police are working on three assumptions: ``It is possible that the duo was murdered somewhere else. A third person might have driven the car and parked it here. Or else, the duo may have poisoned themselves. The vomit in the car supports this theory. But the strangulation marks on Monica's neck do not support the suicide angle.
``The third possibility that we are investigating is that two might have had a fight and something might have gone wrong thereafter. However, we cannot say anything till we get the detailed post-mortem report,'' the police said.
Monica's father is currently said to be in the United States. Her mother Manorama and sister Anita said that they came to know about the incident this morning. Monica was earlier an employee of TVI. She had joined Zee TV some 18 months ago.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.