Senior seen on balcony held for anchor’s death

Noida: A senior colleague of Radhika Kaushik, a 25-year-old news anchor who allegedly fell to death from her 4th-floor balcony on Friday, was arrested on Sunday after police found inconsistencies in his statements.
Rahul Awasthi, Radhika’s senior in the news organisation, was with her on Friday night, when she died. Her family has accused him of murdering her. Guards at Antriksh Forest, where Radhika lived with a woman friend, have told police they had seen her and Rahul on the balcony moments before she was found dead.

On Sunday morning, Rahul was called to the local police station for questioning. He was arrested around noon when he kept giving conflicting versions of the sequence of events. Police have charged him under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and are expected to seek his custody in court on Monday.

Police quoted guards at Antriksh to claim that both Radhika and Rahul were seen laughing and hugging each other at the balcony around 3am on Friday, minutes before the news anchor was found dead. Rahul had earlier told police he was in the washroom when Radhika allegedly fell to her death from the balcony.

“The accused told us he had never gone to the balcony since visiting Radhika’s home. But guards at the housing society have seen both of them drinking at the balcony. They were laughing loudly and had even hugged each other a few times. After around 10 minutes, Radhika was found dead under the balcony,” circle officer Swetabh Pandey said.

Police said there were slim chances that Radhika could have fallen to her death. “The height of the railing is 4ft and that of the woman was 5ft 6inches. It is unlikely she would have toppled over, even if they were drunk. Police will produce the accused in court on Monday and seek custody.”

Rahul had been giving conflicting statements ever since he was called for questioning on Friday. The senior news anchor had initially told police he and Radhika had decided to have dinner in her flat and he arrived at her place around 10.30pm. A day later, he told police he had come to repair a leak in the washroom. Police have, however, not found any leakage in the washroom.

Radhika, a resident of Jaipur, had come to Noida recently to work in the news channel. She shared the flat with Anushka Dutta, who works in an IT company. Anushka was away at work when Rahul had come over.

A police team that had visited Radhika’s flat after her death had found several bottles of whisky and rum and four cans of beer in a room. Rahul has been working as a senior news anchor in the same organisation for the past five years. He is married and has a four-month-old daughter. He is originally from Udaipur and currently lives in Jaypee Kosmos in Sector 134, Noida.