In-laws to be questioned today, anticipatory bail plea rejected

New Delhi: The in-laws of female flight attendant Anissia Batra, who allegedly committed suicide last week in South Delhi’s Panchsheel Park, will be questioned on Saturday, the police said on Friday.

Anissia’s husband, Mayank Singhvi, was arrested on charges of dowry death.

A senior police officer said they have issued a notice to Mayank’s parents, Sushma and R.S. Singhvi, and they have been called for questioning on Saturday at 4 pm.

Earlier, a city court refused to grant them protection from arrest. The couple was denied anticipatory bail by the court after it was told that the allegations against them were serious, Ishkaran Singh Bhandari, the lawyer of the woman’s parents, said.

At present, Mayank is in 14-days judicial custody.The family of Anissia had submitted a complaint to the police last month stating if anything happened to her, “it should be treated as a case of murder”.

According to a friend of the deceased who did not wish to be named, her father Maj. Gen. Roopinder Singh Batra (Retd) had submitted a letter on June 27 to the Hauz Khas police station stating that Anissia’s husband and his parents could harm her.

“They may physically harm her and show it as an accident or suicide. Kindly note that any harm to her will be directly attributable to plans made by my son-in-law and his parents (sic),” the letter stated.

Anissia’ friend accused her husband and his parents of deviating the case. Mayank was arrested on Monday on charges of dowry death.

“Mayank’s parents had applied for an anticipatory bail seeking exemption till today. During the hearing today, Mayank’s lawyers tried to deviate the case by saying that he gifted her BMW and expensive stuff,” the friend alleged.

The deceased was planing to divorce her husband and was even searching for houses, a friend of hers has claimed.

Her friend was the last person the deceased had communicated to through messages. “On the day she died, her husband had called me around 1.30 pm and he seemed furious. I asked him about Anissia and he said she was with him and put the phone on speaker. I had advised them, ‘If you are going to give your marriage a final shot, seek professional help because as friends we can only advise you’,” she recalled.

However, at around 3.56 pm, Anissia’s friend said she got a WhatsApp message from her that she had been locked up in a room. The woman raised doubts about Anissia’s death being a suicide as “She was too strong to take such a step. On Saturday, she was supposed to take a flight and had packed her suitcases and was excited. In the last two months, she had made up her mind to move out, had even consulted a divorce lawyer and was talking to real-estate agents and looking for houses in East of Kailash,” she said.