Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today (Nov 9, 2004) restrained police from arresting city businessman Gautam Khanduja, who is apprehending arrest on the charges of abetting the suicide of his fiancee and former Miss India Nafisa Joseph.

Hearing Khanduja's plea for anticipatory bail, Justice R S Mohite asked police not to arrest him till further orders.

The Sessions court had earlier rejected his plea for anticipatory bail. Being aggrieved, he filed a fresh petition in High Court, which will come up for hearing tomorrow (Nov 10, 2004).

Khanduja's lawyer Dipesh Mehta pleaded that the order of Sessions court was bad in law and that the Judge had erred in rejecting the plea for anticipatory bail. He said Khanduja had no role to play in the suicide of Nafisa.

Khanduja's bail petition was rejected by the principal sessions judge R R Vacha who upheld prosecution's argument that Khanduja's refusal to marry Nafisa had apparently driven her to the extreme step.

The lower court had accepted an affidavit filed by Nirmal Joseph, father of Nafisa, opposing anticipatory bail to Khanduja and seeking his custodial interrogation.

In the affidavit, Joseph submitted that Khanduja had made false and misleading statements in his bail application about Nafisa alleging that she had depression and suicidal tendencies as she consumed sleeping pills and alcohol.

Joseph further alleged that Khanduja had selectively leaked contents from Nafisa's diary to the press to show she was an alcoholic and took sleeping pills. This diary was given to the court on last occasion.

Joseph said the cause of Nafisa's death was Khanduja's refusal to marry her, particularly after much publicity was given to the proposed event. He said only custodial interrogation of Khanduja would establish the truth.

Joseph said that a few days before the proposed marriage, Khanduja announced his plans to break off the relationship although wedding cards had been printed. After hearing this, Nafisa felt shattered and refused to eat and sleep for three days. She even telephoned her friend to say that Khanduja was planning to dump her on the pretext of calling her alcoholic.