Mumbai: Kamasutra model commits suicide, found hanging at her home

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, June 25:  Indian supermodel and former Miss Mauritius, Viveka Babaji was found dead inside her apartment at suburban Bandra in Mumbai on Friday.

 

 

37-year-old Babaji’s body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her residence. Viveka was a former Miss World participant and had also acted in a few movies though she was best known for her Kamasutra campaign in the 90s.

Preliminary reports suggest she was depressed after breaking up with her boyfriend and the police have also recovered a suicide note from the house.

Neighbours got worried when the model failed to answer the door on Friday despite the smell of gas emanating from her apartment. They finally alerted the police who rushed to the spot and broke open the door.

 

Mumbai Model’s Death Mystery Deepens

Mubai, June 26: The mystery behind the death of a model and former Miss Mauritius  Viveka Babaji, 27, deepened on Saturday morning, even as police said they have found a suicide note.

Viveka’s body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her fifth floor apartment in Continental Tower, Bandra on Friday night.


Police said, according to preliminary investigation it seems to be a case of suicide.However, the reason behind the suicide is yet to be ascertained. The model had been dating one Gautam for the last one month, her friends said.

Her body was found  at around 5 pm when foul smell started emanating and neighbours phoned the police.

Police said, Viveka was in love with a Mumbai share broker, but their relationship had soured recently.

Forensic experts who investigated the spot said that they had lifted two different fingerprints – one of a female and another of a male.

Investigators suspect that the other fingerprint might be of the share-broker who had been a regular visitor to the house.

Police have found from the apartment  a lap top, a mini-diary, a black cloth like a dupatta and some medicines including Anacin, Disprin.

The model had called up her sister in Mauritius on Thursday night and had asked her to take care of mother saying “ I am going far away from everyone…”

Several of her model friends gathered at the apartment when they got news about her death.

The hanging body was a horrific throwback to the Nafisa Joseph incident. Viveka was quite the toast of her time, bagging some of the most prestigious assignments on and off the ramp in her belle epoque, the 1990s - the saucy Kama sutra campaign is one that comes to mind, reports Mumbai Mirror.

Viveka had a bitter break-up with writer-director Rohit Jugraj a year ago.

Viveka continued to work in fashion into the new century. Socialite Sharmila Khanna, who introduced her to the world of modeling the late ‘80s, said: "I found it strange that Viveka chose not to engage in modeling for the last four to five years. Nobody knew why."

Viveka hailed from Mauritius,and owned an entertainment firm called Vibgyor Entertainment that organised events. She represented Mauritius for the Miss Universe in 1993, having won the title of Miss Mauritius.

In her later years, she carved a niche for herself as a fashion choreographer. In the new millennium she tried her luck with films, like many of her ilk, acting in a B-grader titled Yeh Kaisi Mohabbat (2002).

Not much was known of her personal life, save for the fact that she was engaged to Rohit Jugraj, the director of the ill-fated Ram Gopal Varma-presented brawn-flick James.