Five years after her tragic suicide, television actress Pratyusha Banerjee’s boyfriend model-actor-shows organizer Rahul Raj Singh is still waiting for a closure to the case accusing him of abetment to suicide .
“The Covid pandemic has prolonged the case much longer than it should have. I am waiting for the day when the court will clear my name. I know I am not guilty. I didn’t kill Pratyusha, her parents’ greed killed her. She was unable to satiate their endless demands. I tried to save her , not kill her,” says Rahul Raj emotionally, the memories of March 27, 2016 still haunt him.
“I can never forget that day. It is embedded in my mind heart and soul. And the way Pratyusha’s so-called friends Vikas Gupta and Kamya Punjabi tried to pin Pratyusha’s death on me…they have their conscience and God to answer to. They know as well as I do that I am not guilty. They also know why they did all the tamasha.”
Why?
“For the publicity. They maligned me without a shred of evidence. That last phone call that Pratyusha made to me does not have any evidence to prove me guilty. Pratyusha does not accuse me even once in that conversation of anything. All her grief and anger were directed at her parents. They are the ones who should be held responsible . In fact when the honourable judge granted me bail it was on the basis of that last phone conversation between Pratyusha and me,” says Rahul Raj.
He intends to sue Vikas Gupta and Kamya Punjabi for criminal defamation as soon as his name is cleared in Pratyusha’s case. “They have damaged my life and career beyond repair. No retaliatory action can give me back my five lost years. Since I was held responsible for Pratyusha’s death all my work dried up. All that I had achieved before Pratyusha’s death is forgotten. My life has come to a standstill.I will sue thse two for criminal defamation claiming Re1 as compensation.”
Rahul Raj says he is digusted by Vikas Gupta’s claims of sharing a relationship with Pratyusha . “Ek mare hue insaan ko istemaal kar rahe hain . How low can he fall? Why has he suddenly woken up to a relationship with Pratyusha five years after her death? A relationship that he never had with her. She is not here to refute his claim.I would have known. She told me everything. Vikas should show some shame. Using a dead girl’s name for publicity is the lowest he can fall.”
Rahul reveals that Pratyusha’s parents are in a pitiable financial condition. “They are in Mumbai living in shabby quarters with no income. Their golden goose is no more. They can’t go back to their hometown Jamshedpur .Everyone there knows how they exploited their daughter.”
The besmirched young actor has full faith in the judiciary. “I believe in the law of the land. The day I am declared innocent, I will start my criminal defamation proceedings against Vikas Gupta and Kamia Panjabi. I want them in jail for what they’ve done to me.”
