City socialite booked for poisoning industrialist hubby with help of a baba

In an uncanny incident, the wife of a prominent industrialist from the city has been accused of poisoning her husband in connivance of a self-proclaimed baba.

The Khar police have booked socialite Poonam Bhagat and the baba for allegedly poisoning industrialist Jai Shroff, who heads the Rs 2,000-crore United Phosphorous Limited.

According to the FIR, on March 25, Bhagat gave Shroff a juice spiked with poison, which made him dizzy. He then started to sleep for long hours for the next few days. Sensing something wrong, Shroff left Mumbai and started taking treatment for poisoning in a private hospital in another state.

On April 4, Shroff approached the Khar Police, who conducted a medical test on him and sent the samples to the FSL to check traces of poison. After receiving the reports from the FSL, police booked Bhagat, the godman and others under section 328, 323, 504 and 34 of IPC amounting to poisoning, assault, intentional insult and common intention.

While the godman has been arrested and remanded in police custody, Bhagat is untraceable at the moment and has already taken anticipatory bail to evade arrest.

In her anticipatory bail plea, she has accused Shroff of domestic violence. She has said in January 2005, within six months of their marriage, Shroff allegedly hit her and broke her tooth by stuffing a mobile phone in her mouth. She stated that she was assaulted again in December 2006 and incidents of domestic violence continued from 2009 to 2015.

On the other hand, Shroff had filed a divorce petition in Bandra court in October 2015, has alleged his wife used to abuse and assault him.