Indore: A 40-year-old woman journalist has been arrested from Mumbai for allegedly abetting the suicide of Dainik Bhaskar group editor Kalpesh Yagnik, police said on Sunday.
Accused Saloni Arora was miffed with Yagnik (55) after being sacked from the newspaper and had allegedly threatened to implicate him in false cases if she was not reinstated, police said. She had even demanded Rs 5 crore from him, they added.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Harinarayanchari Mishra told reporters here that Arora kept changing locations before she was finally arrested from Mumbai on Saturday.
She had stayed in Delhi, Goa and Gujarat over the last 15 days, he said.
Yagnik had allegedly committed suicide on the night of July 12 by jumping off the roof of a three-storey building on A B Road here that houses the offices of the newspaper.
The DIG said Arora used to cover entertainment news for the Hindi daily in Mumbai.
He said the police were in possession of some phone call recordings in which Arora was purportedly heard demanding Rs 5 crore from Yagnik.
"Allegations are that the woman scribe had threatened Yagnik in one such conversation that if he fails to pay the amount, she will tarnish his social image by implicating him in false cases," the DIG said.
He added that Arora had released the audio clips of these conversations on the social media with an intention to pressurise Yagnik for the money.
She was regularly threatening Yagnik by calling him from different numbers, Mishra said.
He said Yagnik seemed to have killed himself due to the alleged mental harassment by Arora over the last eight months.
The family members of Yagnik and some of his co-workers had recorded their statements with the police against the accused, the DIG said.
Responding to a query, he said the police were also investigating if Arora was being helped by any other person, but has not come across any such evidence so far.
"The investigation is underway on the basis of seized evidences," the DIG said.
Arora was produced in a local court on Sunday, which remanded her in police custody till August 9.
Police had earlier said Yagnik had met Additional Director General (ADG) of Indore Range Ajay Kumar Sharma 10 days before he committed suicide, and submitted a letter complaining that the woman scribe was threatening to falsely implicate him if he did not reinstate her.
When asked why the police did not act on the basis of the letter, the DIG said, "This letter was of informative nature only. Yagnik had not sought any police action against Saloni (Arora). The letter was kept confidential on his request."
Yagnik had just requested ADG Sharma to hear his side if the woman journalist filed a police complaint against him, he said.
Arora was booked under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear) and 503 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and the Information Technology Act.
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