Stock analyst Gautam Vora told Khar police that supermodel Viveka and her former boy friend Karthik Jobanputra used to fight frequently, reports Hindustan Times.
Dressed in a white shirt and striped black trousers, 32- year-old Vora walked into Khar police station for the second round of questioning.
During the three hours of questioning, Vora spoke about his brief “friendship ”with the former supermodel and said there was no commitment involved.
He said he was trying to help Viveka comeout of her depression and addiction to alcohol and sleeping pills.
Excerpts from Vora's statement: “I met Viveka almost two months ago at a party and we became good friends. We were just friends and weren't in to any relationship. There was no commitment. No one in my family knew of my friendship with her because she was just a friend, like many others, and nothing more. I am completely unaware of her “love” for me as has been reported in the media. I have never sent her any SMS as reported in the media since I mostly spoke to her over the phone.
“I got to know about her terrible break-up with her former boyfriend, Karthik Jobanputra, and losses incurred in business, because of which she had gone into depression.
“When I met her, they had just split after a year-long relationship. She felt deceived as Karthik began seeing Hemangi Pate [a model].She was smoking, drinking and taking sleeping pills to overcome the depression. We never fought with each other (as claimed by some reports). Rather Karthik and she had fights on some occasions in her flat and people might have mistaken him for me.
“I was helping her come out of depression and quit her addiction to sleeping pills. Even on June 24, I went to her flat when she called me and was there till 9 o'clock in the night.
“I came to know about her death from media reports And when channels began flashing my name and reporters started calling on my cell, I switched it off. I was Scared that the police might arrest me due to media pressure and hence approached my lawyer for anticipatory bail….”
A Times of India report says, the Khar police appears intent on getting Viveka Babajee's family to lodge a complaint against her boyfriend.
Senior officials said they were planning to counsel Viveka's mother and sisters to press abetment of suicide charges against stock analyst Gautam Vora.
The cops say they, too, can file an abetment of suicide case against Vora, but a case filed by the bereaved family and their standing as independent witnesses against Vora would have greater chances of passing muster in court.
Lawyers, however, feel the case would not be very strong even if Babajee's family files a complaint against Vora. They are also surprised at the cops' keenness on getting the family to file the complaint.
“If Vora had handed her a rope to hang herself or taunted her by saying that she didn't deserve to live and was a non-entity, then it would amount to aiding or instigating her. That intention is crucial and can make or break a case,'' former IPS officer and lawyer Y P Singh said.
The cops' efforts also fly in the face of the family's avowed disinclination, till date, to file a complaint.
“After Viveka's sister was informed of her death, she told our officers that she did not wish to file a complaint. We did not bother the family too much as they were in shock. Then, on Monday, Viveka's mother came down from Mauritius for her daughter's funeral. But, when an inspector from the Khar police station went to meet her thereafter, he was told that the police could do what they wanted about the case,'' a senior official said.
Khar police officials said they met the model's mother to see if the family would be willing to press an abetment-to-suicide complaint against Viveka's boyfriend, Gautam Vora, as the evidence in the case was weak.
“Viveka's diary has been seized. But the line, ‘You killed me Gautam Vora' can be interpreted in different ways. The page on which the statement has been written is neither dated nor signed. It can't be sufficient grounds to register an abetment case,'' a senior official said.
“We require statements from independent witnesses, mainly her family and friends, in whom she might have confided about her troubled relationship,'' he added.
The law on abetment is more stringent in case of married women. “If a woman commits suicide within seven years of marriage, it's a perfect case of abetment under provisions of the Indian Evidence Act. But, in cases of unmarried women, there has to be a positive action by the accused to aid or instigate the victim to commit suicide,'' Singh said.
