The Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested singer Samar Singh from Ghaziabad for allegedly abetting the suicide of popular Bhojpuri actress Akanksha Dubey, officials said on Friday.
A look-out notice had been issued against Samar Singh and his brother Sanjay Singh after Dubey was found dead in a hotel room in Varanasi's Sarnath area around a fortnight ago. Both were booked under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code based on the complaint of the actress's mother.
Samar Singh was hiding in a housing society in the Raj Nagar Extension area, under the Nandgram police station limits, of Ghaziabad -- the western Uttar Pradesh district bordering Delhi.
He was held late Thursday in a joint operation by the local police and their visiting counterparts from Varanasi, a senior officer said.
"A team from the Sarnath police station of the Varanasi Commissionerate had come to Ghaziabad on Thursday night. They sought the help of the Ghaziabad police in nabbing Samar Singh from the Charms Castle (housing) society," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Ghaziabad City) Nipun Agarwal said.
"The accused is being presented in a Ghaziabad court for transit remand by the Varanasi police team," the DCP said on Friday morning.
Later in the afternoon, a local Ghaziabad court granted a 24-hour transit remand of Samar Singh to the Varanasi police. The visiting police team then left for Varanasi with Samar Singh in its custody.
DCP Agarwal said before moving to the Ghaziabad society for shelter, Samar Singh had been in hiding at different locations in Noida, Delhi and Uttarakhand.
Police said four people, including Samar Singh, were taken into custody from the flat on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. They were brought to the local Nandgram police station for questioning after which the three were let off.
Akanksha Dubey, a popular Bhojpuri actress, was found dead inside a hotel room in Varanasi on March 26.
The 25-year-old actress was found hanging from the fan with a stole. Dubey, a native of Bhadohi district, had gone to Varanasi for shooting a movie and was staying in the hotel.
The next day, her mother Madhu Dubey lodged a complaint with the Varanasi police, alleging that Samar and Sanjay Singh "harassed and tortured" her daughter for three years.
"My daughter lost her life because of their harassment," Akanksha Dubey's mother had alleged, according to the FIR seen by PTI.
Shashak Shekhar Tripathi, who is the lawyer of Akanksha Dubey, raised questions over the post-mortem report and said he is seeking the advice of medical experts, based on which, he will prepare questions for police.
Tripathi had on Wednesday demanded a probe by the CBI or CB-CID into the matter. In a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he alleged that the 25-year-old actress' death was not by suicide, rather she was killed by some people in the hotel room.
He also alleged that Akanksha Dubey's body was "forcibly cremated" despite her mother's insistence that the cremation should happen only after the post-mortem report arrives.
Many known people in the Bhojpuri industry were exploiting Dubey and were not paying her for her work, the lawyer had alleged.
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