Pushpa Archana Lall (26), a native of Andaman and Nicobar islands and law graduate, was found dead in her room at a paying guest accommodation in Bengaluru on November 24. It was after she filed a case of sexual harassment against two lawyers of the law firm Jayanth Pattanshetti and Associates, where she was working as an intern.
It is alleged to be a case of suicide as the police had found that she had consumed sleeping pills. Pushpa had filed a case with Commercial Street police station accusing the lawyers of sexual misconduct and also for showing her indecent videos on several occasions.
Soon after she lodged the case, Pushpa reportedly told her friends that she was getting threat calls asking her to withdraw the case.
An audio clip has gone viral, which reportedly involves the conversation between Pushpa and another lawyer named Kirti. After the voice clip, which is available with The News Minute, Commercial Street police are now investigating whether Pushpa was pressurised to withdraw the complaint.
According to the First Investigative Report (FIR), Pushpa was an intern at Jayanth Pattanshetti and Associates, a law firm on Infantry Road, and she was placed under the mentorship of Chandra Naik T.
"During my internship, I met Chetan Desai at the High Court. On different occasions, they took me to pubs in Indira Nagar and made me drink. They gathered my personal details and misbehaved with me and groped me and showed me indecent videos. They threatened my life over phone calls and WhatsApp messages," the FIR stated.
In the alleged audio clip, Kirti can be heard asking the girl not to file a case against the accused and that it is better to compromise. The police need to verify the call records to check if it is Pushpa's voice and also if the call was made from her phone.
However, on Wednesday, the police filed a case of suicide abetment against two advocates - Chandra Naik T and Chetan Desai.
The police are waiting for the autopsy report to identify the exact cause of the girl's death. The police had earlier registered a case of suspicious death under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC).
