Mumbai: Lover ’attacks’ singer in suicide pact-Both hospitalised

TNN

Mumbai, 25 February 2012: A 34-year-old singer and mother of two was grievously injured after her male acquaintance, who owns an orchestra and is also married , slit her throat at her Malad residence before attempting to end his own life on Friday afternoon. The two, Sonal Goyani and Jayesh Goswami , 36, have been admitted to separate hospitals in the suburbs and are critical.

 

Goswami claimed that he was in a relationship with Sonal and the couple had made a suicide pact. However , Sonal and her husband, Hetalbhai Goyani, have rubbished his allegations . The Malad police have booked Goswami on charges of attempted murder and attempted suicide. While the police are yet to take down the official statements of the three, they have managed to speak to all three and have retrieved a suicide note written by Goswami.

 

Sonal has been married to Hetalbhai , an imitation jewellery dealer, for 14 years. The couple has two sons aged 13 and 9. They reside at Neeta Towers in Mamletdaar Wadi, where Friday’s incident took place. Hetalbhai, who runs his own showroom in Malad , told the police that Goswami had been harassing his wife for two years to join his orchestra.

 

Around 1.45pm on Friday, Goswami , who stays in Goregaon (West), landed up at the Goyanis’ Malad residence , according to Sonal.

 

Sonal’s husband had warned accused:

Goswami told the watchman he was going to meet Sonal at her fifthfloor apartment, police said. She was alone at home. One of her kids had gone to school while the other was playing downstairs.

 

Based on what Sonal has told the police, senior inspector (Malad) Avinash Jadhav said, "Goswami asked Sonal to let him in on the pretext that this was the last time he would speak to her and he wouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Sonal agreed and asked him to get done soon. She moved into the kitchen to make ’theplas’ on the gas stove. Jayesh crept up from behind with a knife taken from her kitchen and slit her throat. Screaming for help, Sonal ran out of the house and latched the door from outside. She went to her next-door neighbour’s flat leaving a trail of blood. Trapped inside her flat, Goswami went to the bathroom and locked himself in. He then slit his throat."

 

But, a police official also said, "Goswami left behind a note in the house, stating that he and Sonal were in an intimate relationship for two years and that her husband used to torture her. He added that he and Sonal had planned to die together as they could not marry and live together." A senior police official said, "We are not aware if Jayesh wrote the note before attempting to kill Sonal or after she escaped. The note is being probed along with the veracity of its contents."

 

Sonal’s neighbours rushed her to the Evershine nursing home in Malad and informed her husband, who was at his showroom. Hetalbhai is now at the hospital, where Sonal is in the ICCU.

 

When the Malad police were summoned, they arrived to find a trail of blood inside Sonal’s house leading to the bathroom. They broke down the bathroom door and found Goswami in a pool of blood there. He was rushed to Bhagwati Hospital, Borivli, where he is in the ICCU.

 

Sonal’s husband rubbished Goswami’s allegations in the note. He told the police that he fought with Goswami two months ago and warned him against harassing his wife. Sonal is likely to undergo surgery soon. A packet of condoms and a spray were found in the house and police are probing whether Goswami had brought them with him.