Radhika Kaushik, a news anchor with a private television channel, died allegedly after falling off the balcony of her fourth-floor apartment at sector-77 in Noida early on Friday, with her family suspecting foul play. Kaushik, who hailed from Jaipur, was working with Zee Rajasthan and had been living in Antrikh Forest Apartments for the past four months.
Reports suggests that there was a party going on in the flat at the time of the incident. The police recovered bottles of alcohol from Kaushik's apartment. According to the police, Kaushik was with a colleague and co-anchor Rahul Awasthi when the incident occurred around 3.30 am.
A case has been registered under Indian Penal Code section 302 (murder) on a complaint by the family of Kaushik, and the colleague has been detained for questioning, Sector 49 police station house officer Girija Shankar Tripathi said.
According to reports, Kaushik used to live with two roommates who were not present in the flat at the time of her death.
The police said both Kaushik and Awasthi were reportedly inebriated at the time of the incident.
"The security guard of the building had alerted the police at Sector 49 police station about the incident. The colleague has told police that he had gone to her house for dinner when she accidentally toppled over the railing in the balcony of the flat," the official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.
"The railing in the balcony is of low-height," the official said.
"We are probing the cause of death," the SHO said, adding the body has been sent for post-mortem and the report is awaited.
(With PTI inputs)