Aditi Ghatak was poisoned or her drink was spiked, alleges her mother

Kolkata: Mystery surrounds the death of Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak's granddaughter, 19-year-old, Aditi Ghatak. Aditi's mother Samhita has alleged that her daughter was poisoned or her drink spiked. She told CNN-IBN that her daughter drowned and was under water for 2 hours, despite her being a good swimmer.

Aditi went out with her friends at 7 pm on Friday. Her mother received a call from Ruby Hospital at 11 pm after Aditi was brought in an unconscious by her friends. The car she was in with her friends fell into a canal in Sonarpur.

Her mother alleges the driver of the car didn't have a valid licence. He has been missing since Saturday. Aditi succumbed to her injuries on Sunday. While hospital authorities say that there was a substantial quantity of water in her stomach, her family has alleged foul play, saying that one of her male friends drugged her with alcohol.

The girl, a first year student of a city college, was last seen by her friends on Friday leaving in a car with a male friend and two other girls from a south Kolkata locality. Late on Friday night, a half-wet Aditi was spotted by her friends lying on the edge of a canal unconscious and admitted to a private hospital.

A post-mortem was being conducted on the body and the Sonarpur police station, to which the case was referred by the Tiljala police station, was investigating the death. Tiljala police station sources, however, claimed that the car had met an accident and two girls were injured. Of them, Aditi's injury was serious to which she succumbed.

State urban development minister Firhad Hakim has asked police to expedite the post-mortem of Aditi's body and make a detailed investigation on the basis of the complaint made by her family members.

(With additional information from PTI)