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Many loose ends in tele-serial producer's wife's suicide

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

The Delhi police is now grappling with a new mystery. Anju Ilyasi, the wife of Suhaib Ilyasi -- the well-known producer of the popular tele-serial India's Most Wanted -- allegedly committed suicide by stabbing herself at her Foreign Service apartment in Mayur Vihar in East Delhi last night. Ilyasi himself was present at the house when it happened.

Though Ilyasi maintains that his wife committed suicide, there are few in the Delhi police who would take him for his word. The man who gave India one of its best-known crime thrillers in recent years now finds himself at the receiving end.

The incident, according to R K Niyogi, joint commissioner of police in charge of New Delhi range, took place around 11.15 PM yesterday when Ilyasi was very much in the flat he had bought only a couple of months back for 1.5 million rupees. What is all the more intriguing is the fact that Ilyasi had two constables of the Delhi police guarding his house when the said incident took place.

"Ilyasi immediately called the policemen who were on guard duty outside his house and told them to arrange for an ambulance as his wife had stabbed herself. She was immediately moved to a nearby nursing home but since her condition was critical she was moved to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where the doctors on duty in the emergency department declared her dead on arrival. The body has been sent for post mortem," Niyogi told rediff.com in an informal chat this evening.

The joint commissioner also said that a sub-divisional magistrate would now be conducting an inquest into the circumstances in which the body of Ilyasi's wife was found. The government has instituted a three-member team of doctors from the AIIMS, Maulana Azad Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital to conduct the post mortem and give their report.

Though senior police officials including the district police chief Nitya Nandan rushed to the spot on hearing about the incident, strangely enough the Delhi police still continues to treat the incident as suicide and have not registered a case of murder. "We have spoken to the father of the deceased Dr K P Singh and he does not suspect any foul play. According to her father his daughter was temperamental in nature and she could do anything when she was in a fit of anger," Niyogi explained.

The moot question, however, is, if it is a case of suicide then why didn't Ilyasi try to prevent her from taking her life? "According to Ilyasi he was playing with his child in the other room when his wife stabbed herself. He immediately rushed her to a nearby nursing home. The wife stabbed herself with an imported butcher's knife," Niyogi revealed. The police officer said that the lady had just one stab injury. But junior police officials investigating the case told reporters that she might have multiple stab wounds. The truth will be known after the post mortem.

Some of the junior police officials told newsmen that the strangest part of the entire sordid affair is the presence of two barbers in the middle of the night at the Ilyasi home. According to these police officers the two barbers visited Ilyasi's house yesterday night around ten thirty, an hour before the incident took place. They came to the house when the constables on duty were very much there. When the policemen asked Ilyasi what the barbers were doing at his hour, he said that he was a busy man and was scheduled to shoot the next day, hence he had asked for a hair cut and a shave.

"We have the addresses of these barbers and they have been checked already. They are not involved," said a senior police officer. Though the barbers were supposed to give Ilyasi a shave and a hair cut they went back without doing either. Why this happened when Ilyasi had specially called them for these chores? Only Illyasi can answer the question.

Moreover, nobody seemed to have heard Anju's screams -- not even the constables posted outside the house. Ilyasi was given security by the Delhi police last year because of political pressure. He had been claiming to have received threats from the underworld because his programme was exposing many dons. One of the programmes dealt with the life of Sri Parkash Shukla who was killed by the Delhi police in an encounter in the city in 1998.

According to Dr M M Kumar, this is the first case of its kind that he has heard about in recent years. "When you want to commit suicide, there are less painful means to do that. Why should a lady stab herself many times to take her life. After one stab she would be in no position to stab herself again," he told rediff.com. The mystery continues.....

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