A local court has granted bail to Aditya Pandit, the boyfriend of Air India pilot Srishti Tuli, who died by suicide last month. The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge T.T. Aglawe at the Dindoshi court on Friday, though the detailed order is awaited.
Tuli, 25, was found dead in her rented apartment at the Kanakia Rain Forest building in Marol in the wee hours of November 25. The 27-year-old Pandit was arrested the next day and booked under Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for abetment of suicide.
The couple had been staying together in the same room for several days before the incident, according to Tuli’s father. Pandit reportedly left for Delhi on the day she committed suicide. The complaint mentioned a difference over eating habits, with Tuli being a non-vegetarian and Pandit being a vegetarian. The father claimed that Pandit forced Tuli to give up non-vegetarian food, which could have led her to take the extreme step.
During the hearing in the court, Pandit’s lawyer Aniket Nikam argued that the abetment charge had no merit. “Occasional disputes in a love relationship do not amount to criminal intent,” he said, while alluding to the fact that she never filed any complaints or left behind a suicide note.
In his bail application, Pandit explained his actions on the day Tuli died, saying he tried to call her several times en route to Delhi but she did not respond. He turned back to Mumbai and found her apartment door locked. He called a locksmith, found her hanging inside, and immediately rushed her to the hospital, but doctors there were unable to save her life.
The application further said that even if all allegations were taken at their face value, they did not support a charge of abetment. “The mere registration of an FIR does not justify the arrest of the applicant,” it concluded.
