The Bombay High Court has discharged actor-producer Rahul Raj Singh in the decade-old case alleging abetment of television actor Pratyusha Banerjee’s suicide.

Justice S.G. Dige passed the order this week, ending nearly ten years of criminal proceedings against Singh. He will not face trial.

Pratyusha Banerjee, known for playing Anandi in Balika Vadhu, died by suicide at her rented flat in Goregaon, Mumbai, on April 1, 2016. She was 24. Singh denied the allegations.

The High Court had granted him anticipatory bail in 2016. After a chargesheet was filed in 2018, Singh sought discharge. A sessions court rejected his plea in August 2023, and he moved the High Court.

His lawyers, Aabad Ponda and Shreyansh Mithare, relied on the couple’s final recorded conversation. They argued it showed Singh trying to dissuade her from any drastic step and saying he was on his way to meet her. The court agreed the material was not enough to proceed to trial.

Why it matters: the ruling underlines how high the legal bar for abetment of suicide is. Courts have often said that conflict or a troubled relationship alone is not enough without clear proof of instigation.