Allegations, speculation after actor Pratyusha Banerjee's death

The world knew her as Anandi. The word translates as 'the joyous one', and that fact would seem an irony if you consider her bleak departure from life. While the industry mourned the loss, it was also time for all secrets and allegations to come tumbling out. Actor Pratyusha Banerjee, who won a zillion fans playing Anandi in the popular soap Balika Vadhu, was found hanging at her flat in Harmony Apartments in the Mumbai suburb of Kandivali on Friday.
She allegedly committed suicide and postmortem has revealed suffocation as the cause of death, clinically ratified by ligature marks in the front and sides of the neck. Pratyusha was just 24 when she was declared dead on arrival at Kokilaben Ambani Hospital. After post-mortem, the body was taken to Oshiwara Crematorium on Saturday evening. Even in death, however, she left a hint of the undying spirit of life her colleagues will always associate with her. Her final status message, tagged with a smiley, on Whatsapp read: "Marke bhi munh na tujhse modhna (I won't turn away my face from you even after dying)."
Were those words meant for boyfriend Rahul Raj Singh, the person who found her hanging from the ceiling?
The duo was reportedly facing relationship problems. As news spread, so did rumours. A website quoted a spotboy as having sighted Pratyusha and Rahul in a mall recently, where they got into an ugly fight. Then, Rahul reportedly slapped her hard. Whispers linking Rahul to a possible reunion with his ex-girlfriend Saloni Sharma have also surfaced. While Pratyusha planned to marry Rahul, some sites have suggested he had secretly gotten engaged to Saloni. It is too early to say if Rahul is innocent or guilty of abetment to suicide, but the police have not ruled out foul play.
The absence of a suicide note could suggest that Pratyusha acted impulsively. As such, the industry is shocked. She was known to be a lively person. "I can't even think what can drive a strong girl like Pratyusha to do something like this," actor Dolly Bindra, who was one of the first to visit the hospital, told the media. For all her reputation as a publicity moth, Dolly made several statements that garnered media attention. Dolly claimed Pratyusha's body had thick sindoor on the forehead. She added many industry colleagues, who were inside at that moment, were "aware of a lot of things".
Meanwhile, reports have started mushrooming to suggest that Pratyusha and Rahul's recent tiffs were happening over the question of marriage. After Bindra's declaration that the body had sindoor on the forehead, designer Rohit Verma claimed the Balika Vadhu actor had spoken to him a few weeks ago about styling her wedding dress.
"I last spoke to Pratyusha on March 22. She told me to design her wedding outfit. She was going to meet me today to discuss the colour palette," Verma, a close friend, told agencies. Other close friends, who turned up at the hospital, seemed too shocked. Among them were Gurmeet Choudhary, Rakhi Sawant, Sara Khan, Debina Bonnerjee, Kamya Punjabi and Ajaz Khan. Meanwhile, many B-Town celebrities took to social media to express grief.
"We all live on the edge of disturbia, some fall in the abyss," tweeted Richa Chadha. "Such a lovely person shouldn't have committed suicide! Who knows the turmoil within her. RIP," tweeted Rishi Kapoor.
Rahul's statement to the police runs thus: "We (Pratyusha and Rahul) used to stay in a two-bedroom flat. We had two keys of which one key was with Pratyusha and another with me. When I entered the bedroom I found Pratyusha hanging from the ceiling. I got very scared. Immediately, I called the neighbours and with their help, I took her to Kokilaben hospital. We assumed that she was alive but she was not. I got so scared that I did not inform the police. It was the hospital authorities who informed them. After the doctors' declaration, I called up Pratyusha's family members and few of our closed friends."
According to Rahul, he had left the house at 10 am on Friday and found Pratyusha dead when he returned at 4pm.
Her body was taken to the crematorium after her parents arrived from hometown Jamshedpur on Saturday.