Varsha used Asha's 'lost' gun to kill self

Renown singer Asha Bhosle has told the police that her daughter Varsha, who killed herself on Monday, had used a pistol that disappeared 30 years ago from her house.

Varsha was found dead with a bullet wound in her head in the singer’s Peddar Road residence. Bhosle, who was in Singapore at the time of the incident, rushed back to Mumbai.

Talking to the media here, Gamdevi police station senior inspector Pradip Lonandkar said: “Varsha had shot herself with a Belgian-make 0.6 calibre pistol. It is a small pistol and it was contact firing. When we asked Ashaji about the pistol she said it was her firearm which had gone missing three decades ago. The singer had reported the matter and the license was
later revoked.

“There are questions which are quite bizarre and strange. And we will try to ascertain as to how Varsha got hold of the pistol which was lost 30 years ago.”
Investigation on

The police have also recorded the statements of Varsha’s aunt Usha Mangeshkar, relatives, driver and domestic help. Varsha, who was undergoing treatment for psychological disorder, had attempted suicide twice earlier.

Grapevine has it that Varsha’s mental state deteriorated after the death of her close friend, the noted portrait photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha last year. She was very keen on starting an orphanage along with the Rajadhyaksha.

Inquiries so far have indicated that her depression had aggravated after the demise of noted fashion photographer friend Gautam Rajadhyaksha, with whom she wanted to start an orphanage. She had reportedly attempted to end her life twice in the pastc