Mumbai: Chats retrieved from the mobile of accused 18-year-old IIT Bombay student Armaan Khatri show that his batchmate Darshan Solanki who died by suicide had sent distressed messages to Khatri, seeking his forgiveness and telling him that he is leaving Mumbai.
The message read, “Hi Armaan. Bhai baat karni hai tere se, maaf kar de mere ko aage se kuch nahi hoga. Bhai mai ghar ja raha hu, Mumbai chod ke.” (Brother I need to speak with you, please forgive me, this will not repeat in future. Brother, I am going home, leaving Mumbai.) Prosecutor Veena Shelar argued that such was the torture by Khatri that the deceased had decided to leave the city while seeking his further custody for investigation from a court where Khatri was produced on Saturday.
Abetment of suicide charges
The student was arrested on Sunday in connection with abetting the suicide and has been charged under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act among others.
The police told the court about the chats retrieved urgently from the forensic laboratory, while seeking Khatri’s custody for additional seven days. The teen was produced before a special court on Saturday after his extended two-day custody with the police ended. The prosecution told the court that the full report of the forensic lab is not yet available as his phone had a password lock and the lab did not have the equipment to open it, but these are extracts recovered on an urgent basis. The police claimed they wanted to question Khatri on this chat and other witnesses were also to be examined. Special Judge AP Kanade did not extend the custody and remanded the teen in judicial custody instead.
