The family of the deceased pilot claims that the boy extorted money and publicly insulted her

Gorakhpur, Mumbai:

Family members of a 25-year-old Air India pilot found dead in her home in Mumbai claim that her boyfriend, arrested for inciting suicide, publicly humiliated her, mentally harassed her and extorted money from her.

Srishti Tuli was found dead on Monday in a rented house in Mumbai’s Marol area. She allegedly hanged herself using a data cable after a telephone argument with her boyfriend Aditya Pandit (27). Aditya told the police that he ran to her apartment and found the door locked. A key cutter was called and the door was opened. Srishti was rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The police did not find a suicide note in the apartment.

Srishti hailed from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and her family is struggling to cope with the shocking loss. Her uncle Vivek Tuli said: “They say she died by suicide, but I don’t believe it. She was strong, otherwise she wouldn’t have become a pilot. We came to know about her friend (Aditya) who started training with her but couldn’t complete the course. He was jealous of her and harassed her.”

According to the FIR, Srishti met Aditya during her commercial flight training in Delhi. After completing the course, Aditya resigned. Srishti moved to Mumbai last year after getting her pilot’s license.

Tuli said they checked Srishti’s bank statement. “So far, we have only managed to check one-month statements. Around Diwali, around Rs 65,000 was given to his family members. I’m convinced he blackmailed her. Now I asked the bank to provide a statement for the entire year. Perhaps she refused to give him money and that was the cause of her death.”

Aditya lives in Faridabad near Delhi and often traveled to Mumbai to stay with Srishti. “The police say she died by suicide. I don’t know how he manipulated her and pushed her to the edge. What did he do? She was chatting happily with her mother and aunt just 15 minutes before she died.”

Tuli said Srishti did not tell her family about any molestation she faced. “She was telling her sister bits and pieces. But when I met her friends, they told me the extent to which he harassed her. He shouted at her in public. There were times when he told her to get out of the car in the middle of the road and drove away,” he said.

He said the family would approach Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for justice. “We are from Gorakhpur. I would go and ask Yogi ji for justice. “I cannot accept the fact that she died by suicide.”

Tuli maintained that another pilot was involved in Srishti’s death. “We found out there was another woman there. She called the key cutter, got him to open the door and took Srishti to the hospital. Who opens the door and enters someone’s apartment without calling the police? And these are trained pilots. And why would a key duplicator randomly open doors from the outside?” The family claims that Aditya also put pressure on Srishti to stop eating non-vegetarian food. They recently had an argument when she couldn’t attend his sister’s engagement ceremony.

The family lodged a complaint and the police registered an FIR on charges of suicide and arrested Pandit.