The 39-year-old air hostess, Anissia Batra’s friends and family had alleged that she was murdered by her husband.
Four days after 39-year-old air hostess Anissia Batra allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the terrace of her Panchsheel Park residence, the Delhi Police arrested her husband Mayank Singhvi on Monday evening. A police official said, “he was questioned for an hour… he will be produced before a magistrate on Tuesday”.
Police said that a case has been registered against him under IPC Section 304B, which pertains to dowry death. On Monday morning, the Delhi Police had issued a lookout circular for Singhvi to “ensure his availability for the investigation”.
After Batra allegedly committed suicide, her family had claimed that “it was a murder and her husband Singhvi was the key accused as he had been consistently assaulting her”. On Monday, at AIIMS, a second post-mortem was conducted after the victim’s younger brother Karan alleged that “the first post-mortem wasn’t videographed, as asked by the sub-divisional magistrate”.
A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory was also called in to “reconstruct the crime scene”. Asked about the four-day delay, DCP South Romil Baaniya said, “The crime team already lifted relevant exhibits on Friday.”
Singhvi, police said, works at a firm in Gurgaon. The two got married in February 2016, after a four-month courtship. Batra’s father, a retired Army major general in Chandigarh, had filed a complaint at the Hauz Khas police station on June 27 expressing concern for her safety. “If anything happens to Anissia, Singhvi and his parents are to be held responsible for it… he is a violent man.” He had returned to Chandigarh afterwards.
About two weeks after his complaint, Batra was found dead. Asked if any action had been taken in that period by Hauz Khas police station officials, Baaniya said, “I don’t know about it yet.”