Accused obtained bail two days before law intern committed suicide

BENGALURU: Police officials probing the death of law intern Pushpa Archana Lall said the two advocates accused of sexually harassing her had obtained anticipatory bail two days before she reportedly committed suicide.
Pushpa, who hailed from Andaman & Nicobar Islands, had completed her internship at Jayanth Pattanshetti Associates on Infantry Road in Bengaluru.She was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her room at a paying guest accommodation in Malleswaram on Saturday. Police suspected she ended her life by consuming sleeping pills.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Pushpa had filed a sexual harassment complaint with Commercial Street police on November 20 against advocates Chandra Naik T and Chetan Desai. Pushpa had stated she was assigned to work with Naik and he introduced her to Desai. She accused both of forcing her to consume alcohol, touching her inappropriately and sexually harassing her, according to the FIR filed by police. The two had been booked under Sections 354A (Sexual harassment) and 354D (Stalking) of the Indian Penal Code.
Commercial Street police said: “On November 22, the accused advocates walked into the station with anticipatory bail. We completed the formalities, including a mahajar and taking statements from the accused. In their reply, they pleaded innocence and brushed away the charges.” Police sources said they suspected Pushpa came under pressure from different quarters after she lodged the complaint.
Her father Tulasi Lall and brother Sunil, who came to the city, were yet to come to terms with the tragedy and said they’d wait for the investigation to be done. Jayanth Pattanshetti told TOI: “Her death was unfortunate. She was intelligent and worked in the litigation wing. She left our office after we gave her the internship certificate on July 4 this year. We did not notice anything going wrong with her when she was with us. Neither were there any complaints against Naik.”
After Pushpa lodged a complaint with the firm through email for the first time on October 29, she was called to the office the next day for an interaction. Pattanshetti said Naik had been with the firm since 2007 and he quit after Pushpa made the sexual harassment allegations. “We have told police we will extend them full cooperation.”
On Monday, Pushpa’s brother Sunil arrived at the PG accommodation to collect her belongings. He said, "We’re shocked by the incident and police are investigating. No comments please."