http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=95869
INDIA: Murder charge against TV crew Reality TV producers and participants allegedly threw a hotel storekeeper off the hotel's top floor The Times of India Wednesday, August 13, 2008 MIDNAPORE/KOLKATA --- A day after the death of Ritz Bengal employee Prasun Adhikary, police started a murder case against four persons -- the producers of the reality show, Gautam Jain and Rajiv Mehra, participant Somnath Roychowdhury and another accused who is still absconding. Adhikary died on Monday after the four allegedly threw him off the hotel's top floor on Friday night. West Midnapore SP Rajesh Kumar Singh on Tuesday said there was enough evidence to nail the accused. "We are sure the four had thrown Adhikary off the top floor. We have got several witnesses to corroborate the charges," he said. Police are also sure that the reality show organizers are fabricating the charges against Prasun and the other hotel employees -- that they were drunk and had misbehaved with some women. "Some of the women participants, who had come to us with the complaint, later told us they had been forced to do so by the show's producers. They said they had been promised an advantage over other participants if they lodged a complaint," added Singh. Adhikary died around midnight on Monday at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata. The news of his death came as a shock to his parents and neighbours at his village, Kakgachhia, in East Midnapore's Tamluk and his colleagues. The 26-year-old youth had joined the hotel as a storekeeper 10 months ago. His colleagues said his polite behaviour had made him popular with the hotel staff and the boarders alike. Adhikary's colleagues, too, claimed the charges brought by the TV team against him were baseless. "He never touched alcohol. Had he been guilty, he would have taken a safer way to flee. Why would he jump to his death," asked Gopal Jana, a colleague. On Tuesday morning, the hotel employees held a demonstration outside Kotwali police station, demanding stern action against the culprits. They charged Kotwali police and the doctors at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital of trying to shield Mehra, who had complained of chest pain during interrogation on Monday. From there, he was transferred to SSKM and later, Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. Mehra was sent back to Midnapore after cardiologists at either hospital failed to find anything wrong with him. "Why did the doctors here refer him to Kolkata when he wasn't sick at all? He was simply trying to use his clout in Kolkata to get himself out of the lock-up. It's been four days since the incident and yet, police have not been able to arrest the fourth accused," said hotel manager Rajeeb Chatterjee. Date Posted: 8/13/2008
