Daily News & Analysis
 
MUMBAI, Feb 25: A 30-year-old woman committed suicide in the city sessions court on Friday. This is the first time such an incident has taken place at the court.
 
Geeta Soni jumped out of a third-floor toilet at 2pm. She died on the spot. The court had found Geeta, her husband Irshat, and mother Sharda guilty of the murder of Geeta’s adoptive father, Adi Cursetjee.
 
Soon after the judgment, Geeta and Irshat authorised their advocates to appeal against their life sentence. This was at 1.55pm.
 
The pair then tried to commit suicide. Irshat was prevented from jumping off the third-floor catwalk by policemen accompanying him, but Geeta jumped to her death after pushing her escort aside and locking herself in the toilet. The room was later opened by a police officer who entered it from over the partition. The newly constructed toilet has a three-foot-high window inches off the floor.
 
Irshat was told of his wife’s death at 4pm. But Sharda, who had fainted when the verdict was
announced, remained unaware of Geeta’s death till evening.
 
Geeta’s body was found atop a blue Maruti parked in a corner of the court’s compound.
 
Policemen had just opened their lunch boxes when they heard a loud thud. The body falling from a height of 75 feet made the car’s rear windshield pop out of its frame and the hood and the dicky collapse. The body was sent to GT Hospital for autopsy.
 
While the principal judge, prosecutors, and police went about their jobs, TV cameramen scrambled to capture the incident. One photographer was seen with his camera at the very window from which Geeta jumped.