'Sonish suffered from depression'

GURGAON: About seven months after Delhi girl Sonish Javed died at MGF Mall in Gurgaon, after falling from the third floor in mysterious circumstances, and her employer, Ashok Rajput, was arrested, the case seems to have taken an interesting turn at the ongoing hearing at the Gurgaon district courts.
The main complainant, Shaheena Begum, Sonish's mother, has said in her statement recorded in the Gurgaon additional session judge R C Godara's court that her daughter was suffering from mental depression.Her brother, Danish Javed, and her father, Anwar, have also recorded similar statements.
Interestingly, this had found no mention in the FIR, filed on a complaint by Shaheena Begum on April 15 this year, hours after the incident.
Rajput is the main accused and has been charged with murder. Earlier, the sessions court had issued a chargesheet under Section 302 of the IPC stating,"During the night intervening April 14/15, 2006 at 3 am, in Addiction Hotel, situated on the third floor of Metropolitan Mall, Gurgaon, you did commit murder by intentionally causing the death of Sonish Javed, daughter of Anwar, by pushing her from the said hotel and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 302 of the IPC and within the cognisance of this court."
The defence has been quick to claim that these statements prove their client is not guilty. "We have been maintaining that our client, Ashok Rajput, never pushed Sonish to death. The statements of her mother, father and brother in the court have made it clear. Not much is left in this case," claimed Rajput's lawyer, Narendra Jain, though only seven out of 22 witnesses have recorded their statements so far.
The case comes up for hearing on Thursday in the court of the additional session judge where Rajput will be produced and more witnesses will record their statements.
The police had filed the chargesheet against hotelier Rajput primarily on the basis of a complaint lodged by Sonish’s mother and Rajput's employee, Jarid Gurumb. In the FIR dated April 15, 2006, the mother had complained that 19-year-old Sonish was working as a marketing executive with Ashok Rajput. She had gone to Mumbai on some business trip for Iceberg, a pub owned by Rajput three-four days before the fateful night of April 14.
She had stated that on the night of April 14, she had flown to Delhi and was received by Gurumb. Then they went to Addiction, a restobar at MGF Mall, for dinner. According to the FIR lodged with DLF police station, Sonish had called up her mother and briefed her. "Then I received a call from Jarid to come soon. He told me that Sonish had been pushed by Ashok Rajput from the third floor. She could not speak and private hospitals were not admitting her until her family members reached there."
She had also mentioned in the FIR that there was a dispute between the two as Ashok owed her Rs 1.5 lakh which he was not paying. And it was for this reason that Ashok pushed Sonish, she had alleged in the FIR. In the days following the incident, Sonish's mother had been the most vocal in speaking to the media about the case and seeking justice in front of TV cameras.