NEW DELHI: The estranged second wife of the owner of a farmhouse where Bollywood actor-director Satish Kaushik died on the intervening night of March 8-9 has alleged that her husband had murdered him over a monetary dispute.
Kaushik (66) had complained of chest pain after which he was rushed to the Fortis Hospital in Gurugram, but he expired midway and was declared brought dead at the hospital in the wee hours of March 9.
According to the police, Kaushik, along with his manager Santosh Rai, came to Delhi on March 8 and stayed at the residence of his friend Vikas Malu in southwest Delhi to celebrate Holi.
In a letter written to the Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora, accessed by this newspaper, Saanvi Malu has claimed that her husband had killed Kaushik over money worth Rs 15 crore he had taken from the latter. “On August 23, 2022, Satish Kaushik visited our Dubai house and demanded return of Rs 15 crore from Vikas Malu. Kaushik said he was in dire need of money and it had been three years since he gave it to Malu for investment. He accused Vikas of cheating him,” she wrote.
She claims that when she asked her husband about the matter, he told her that he had lost the money during the Covid pandemic, and that he told her of a plan to get rid of Kaushik through an overdose of some ‘blue pills’.
“My husband has got a big collection of different types of drugs namely ganja, amphetamine, methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine, cocaine, ephedrine, heroin, hashish oil and hashish, blue pills, pink pills, DMA, GHB, crack etc., which he uses in all his farmhouse parties in Delhi,” the letter read.
“I read about the suspicious death of Satish Kaushik in the farmhouse of Vikas Malu. I fully suspect that Vikas Malu in connivance with accomplices conspired and murdered Satish Kaushik by using the drugs at his farmhouse so that he does not have to return Rs 15 crore to Satish Kaushik,” the woman has alleged. She said that she is willing to be a witness in the case.
“Vikas Malu is a well-connected person with higher police officials and politicians and they are protecting him from the clutches of justice and punishment. I am willing to be a witness as Vikas Malu has disclosed his conspiracy to murder Satish Kaushik to me in the bedroom at Dubai on August 23, last year,” she wrote.
Malu, director of Kuber group, has denied the allegations even as Kaushik’s wife Shashi was emphatic in denying the murder charge. She said her husband did not lend any money to Malu and the two were good friends who wouldn’t get into such a fight. She also cited the post-mortem report which said Kaushik had a massive heart blockage.The police are probing the allegations made by Saanvi.
Cache of drugs at farmhouse, says wife
In a letter written to the Delhi Police Commissioner, Saanvi Malu claimed that her husband killed Satish Kaushik over Rs 15 crore he had taken from the latter. “My husband keeps ganja, methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine, cocaine, ephedrine, heroin, blue pills, pink pills, DMA, GHB, crack etc. for parties at the farmhouse,” she alleged in the letter