22 months on, woman, father booked for abetment after boyfriend died by suicide

A man's girlfriend and her father have been booked by Mumbai police for abetment to suicide and tampering with evidence, 22 months after his death by suicide. The victim's father had alleged that the girlfriend deleted WhatsApp chats and her father deleted CCTV footage of the couple fighting before the incident. The father has been fighting for justice, leading to the Supreme Court directing the police to register a case against the accused. The accused have been booked under sections 201 and 306 of the Indian Penal Code.

Mumbai: Twenty-two months after a man died by suicide, the police on Tuesday booked his girlfriend and the woman’s father for abetment to suicide and tampering with the evidence.

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The accused have been identified as Mahima Thakur and her father Praveen Thakur.

Manav Lalwani, 24, hung himself on the terrace of their house in Green Acres Bungalows, Deonar, in the early hours of December 2, 2021. He had come home around 1am after having dinner at the Chembur Gymkhana with Mahima and other friends the previous evening. Just before taking the extreme step, he had made several calls to his girlfriend.

The victim’s father, Prakash Lalwani, had alleged that while Mahima had deleted the WhatsApp chats with Manav, her father had deleted the CCTV footage of the couple fighting below their house.

“When we checked his phone, we found he had made several calls to Mahima just before returning home. Later, his friends told us that the two of them fought in the society compound after returning from the outing. We asked the society for the CCTV footage from that time, but it was missing,” Prakash told the police, adding that Praveen was the secretary of the residents association then.

In the same week that Manav passed away, Prakash said he had told the police about these facts. However, he added that the police insisted on registering an accidental death report. Since then, the victim’s father has been fighting the system – writing letters to highly placed police officers, asking for information through RTI applications and taking legal recourse.

It was the Kurla metropolitan magistrate court that directed the police to register a case of abetment to suicide against the father-daughter duo who had challenged this directive but Prakash went all the way to the Supreme Court to ensure that they were brought to the book.

Upset over how he had to struggle for this semblance of closure for his family, he said, “We still have no idea what Manav was so distressed over. The Thakurs have avoided facing our family afterwards, not even attending the funeral or offering condolence despite Mahima and Manav being in a relationship for five years. This alone is an admission of guilt in my eyes,” Prakash added.

The Thakurs have been booked under sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed) and 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.