TV actor Sameer Sharma found dead, suicide suspected
Mumbai: Television actor Samir Sharma, best known for his roles in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Left Right Left , was found dead in his home in suburban Malad where he lived alone, police said on Thursday.
The 44-year-old was found hanging from the fan of the kitchen on Wednesday night, police officials said. He may have been dead for two days before he was found, they said.
"We have not found any suicide note at the spot. It seems to be suicide case. It is suspected that he hanged himself two days back. We have sent the body for an autopsy," Malad police station's senior inspector George Fernandes said.
Sharma, who also worked in serials such as Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki , Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyar Ke and Wo Rehne Wali Mehlon Ki , lived in a rented flat in Chincholi Bunder locality in Malad (West).
His body was discovered by the building's watchman, who peeped through the kitchen window and saw him hanging. He then alerted members of the society who informed the police.
Police rushed to the spot and took Sharma to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, another official said. Efforts were on to get in touch with the family of the actor, who had been living alone since February, he said.
Based on primary information, an Accidental Death Report (ADR) has been registered, Fernandes said, adding that further investigations are underway.
On July 27, Sharma posted his last words on Instagram with a poem on death and dreams.
I built my pyre and slept on it and with my fire it was lit. And all that was me I burned in it. I killed my dream to wake up from it. Now my dream is gone, he wrote on his page.
After that, he posted some photographs but no written content. His bio on Instagram reads Actor. Writer. Poet and mostly has shots of beaches and videos of him driving to scenic places.
Sharma's death comes at a time the entertainment industry is reeling from the shock of the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found hanging at his apartment in suburban Bandra on June 14. Rajput's death, which will now be investigated by the CBI, exposed many faultlines in the industry.
"Depression is a lonely disease," Sharma had posted after Rajput's death.
Biopolar Disorder, Depression, and Schizophrenia etc. do you know or understand what that means or feels like? No you don't, unless you've been through it yourself. And anybody who hasn't, will never ever be able to understand what that feels like, he wrote on July 22.
Bollywood star Sidharth Malhotra, who worked with Sharma in Hasee toh Phasee , condoled the actor's death. Sharing a picture with Sharma from the film, Malhotra wrote, Really sad and unfortunate #RIPSameerSharma.
Actor Varun Dhawan also shared a picture on his Instagram stories and wrote #RIPSameerSharma .
On June 9, Rajput's former manager Disha Salian jumped from a high-rise building. The month earlier, on May 15, TV actor Manmeet Grewal had hanged himself at his Mumbai home.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Excise policy case: HC gives more time to Kejriwal, Sisodia to respond to ED plea to expunge remarks
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted time till April 2 to former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 21 others to respond to a plea by the Enforcement Directorate to expunge "unwarranted" remarks made against it by the trial court while discharging them in the liquor policy case.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma expressed displeasure over the request for more time by the lawyers appearing for Kejriwal and other accused, and said it would fix a date for final hearing in the matter during the next hearing on April 2.
"I don't know why you are not filing a reply. You should have filed a reply if you think you really needed to file a reply. They are only saying judge should not have written something that he has written."
"By second (of April), you file your reply. Then we will fix a date for final hearing," the judge said.
The Enforcement Directorate's counsel said there was no need to file replies to its petition and that this was an attempt to delay the case.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for ED, contended that the agency's petition has no impact on the accused, as the challenge was limited to the trial court judge's observations against the agency when it discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and others in the CBI case.
The counsel for one of the accused said a brief reply was necessary and time was needed for it as the discharge order was 600 pages long.
Justice Sharma remarked that the ED's case has nothing to do with all 600 pages.
"Here is a prosecuting agency which has stated that the judge exceeded jurisdiction. I told them even I make such observations. I need to deicide it but you said I need to file a reply. Now you say 600 pages have to be read," the judge observed.
Raju also urged the court to direct that the observations of the trial court would not be relied upon by the accused in related proceedings. "It is a short date. Let them reply," the court responded.
On March 10, the court had asked Kejriwal and others to respond to the ED's plea.
In the petition, ED said the trial court's remarks were wholly extraneous to the CBI's case. It said the ED was neither a party in those proceedings nor afforded any opportunity to be heard.
"If such sweeping, unguided, bald observations are permitted to stand ... grave and irreparable prejudice would be caused to the public at large as well as the petitioner," the ED plea said.
"Therefore, the aforesaid paragraphs which concern the investigation independently conducted by the Enforcement Directorate under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) deserve to be expunged as it amounts to a clear case of judicial overreach...," it added.
On February 27, the trial court discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and others in the Delhi liquor policy case, pulling up the CBI by saying that its case was wholly unable to survive judicial scrutiny and stood discredited in its entirety.
The trial court ruled that the alleged conspiracy was nothing more than a speculative construct resting on conjecture and surmise, devoid of any admissible evidence.
To compel the accused to face the rigours of a full-fledged criminal trial in the stark absence of any legally admissible material did not serve the ends of justice, it said.
In its order, the trial court highlighted that a procedure permitting prolonged or indefinite incarceration based on a provisional and untested allegation risked "degenerating into a punitive process" and raised a "concern of considerable constitutional significance" where individual liberty was "imperilled" by invoking the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
It said the issue assumed heightened significance where an accused was arrested for the offence of money laundering and thereafter required to surmount the stringent twin conditions prescribed for the grant of bail, resulting in prolonged incarceration even at the pre-trial stage.
It further said that despite the settled legal position that the offence of money laundering cannot independently subsist and requires the foundational edifice of a legally sustainable predicate offence, the prevailing practice revealed a disturbing inversion.
Underlining that the objective of PMLA was undoubtedly legitimate and compelling, the trial judge mentioned that statutory power, however wide, could not eclipse constitutional safeguards.
