Plot thickens in Bollywood murder mystery

But questions remains: why and how? Though the special team from Mumbai’s Versova police station arrested Bhatia on November 23 for her suspected involvement in the death of Kunal Singh in February last year and interrogated her,investigators are still baffled.

Police Inspector Kalpana Gadekar from the Versova police station said,“We have grilled her but she does not seem to have any motive for the murder as she also had a stake in the movie they were starring in together. Moreover,Kunal was a well-built man and it seems impossible that Laveena could single-handedly kill him and make it look like a hanging. There is also no evidence of anyone being in the flat besides the two of them which makes it difficult to prove that it is a homicide.”

When asked about the fact that Bhatia failed the polygraph test conducted on her,Gadekar pointed out,“Bhatia’s replies that she was innocent were detected as false but a polygraph test does not assure foolproof results.”

What is known so far is that Bhatia and Singh were co-starring in the Bollywood film Yogi. On the night of February 6,2008,the two were together at his apartment in Oshiwara. According to Bhatia,she stepped into the bathroom for a while and when she emerged she discovered Singh hanging from the ceiling. The Oshiwara police investigated the death and concluded it was a suicide. But matters did not end there.

Unsatisfied with the police probe,Rajendra Singh,the father of Kunal Singh and a retired Army officer filed a petition in the Bombay High Court in August,pleading for the case to be reinvestigated. A fresh police probe was ordered after the doctor who had conducted the post-mortem told the court that the death was “homicidal”. The Versova police team then arrested Bhatia on charges of murder.

Rajendra Singh says,“I have spent 33 years in the Army and have been part of enquires regarding death,so one glance at my son’s corpse told me that this was no suicide. Kunal had certain marks on his arms as if someone had pinned him down and the marks on his neck were not consistent with what a person committing suicide by hanging would have. Moreover,there was absolutely no motive for Kunal to commit suicide as he was cheerful about the upcoming movie project and had set up appointments with the music director the next day. Why would a person planning to commit suicide make advance plans? Laveena’s statement says that she had gone to the bathroom for around 20 minutes and on coming out,saw Kunal hanging from the ceiling. It is impossible for me to believe that a cheerful person would turn suicidal in a few minutes. It is obvious that he has been killed.”

Rajendra Singh is not satisfied with just the arrest of Bhatia. “This is a bigger conspiracy with many people involved. If the team does not uncover it,I shall request the HC to hand over the case to the CBI.”

Kunal Singh has done a handful of movies in Hindi,Tamil and Bhojpuri. He acted in a Bhojpuri film Gangotri which had a rather illustrious star cast,including Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. In Bollywood,he is remembered for his lead role in Dil Hi Dil Mein ,a 2000 remake of the Tamil hit Kadhalar Dinam. He then started his own production company,Balagiri,which was planning to produce Yogi in partnership with Siddharth Bhatia,Laveena’s father. Yogi was to be Bhatia’s Bollywood debut.

(With Dipti Nagpaul-D’Souza)