Police investigating the death of Rahul Arunoday Banerjee recorded statements from several eyewitnesses on Tuesday.
Among them were crew members and boatmen who were present at the scene or had responded when Banerjee fell into the water and could not be traced for several
minutes.
Sources said a team from Digha coastal police station travelled to Odisha on Tuesday and examined boatmen at Talsari.
“We recorded the statements of the men who said they saw the incident. We spoke to several boatmen. More or less all of them have the same version of the incident,” an officer attached to the probe said.
The police also recorded statements of some members of the shooting crew who were present at the spot.
“We are trying to piece together the exact sequence of events and who all responded to the situation. We are trying to find out why no permission was sought from the local police, who were the first to spot him drowning and what their reaction was,” said an investigator.
Sources said the production house shooting a Bengali TV series did not take the necessary permissions from the Odisha administration, resulting in an alleged delay in Banerjee’s rescue and hospitalisation.
An officer of Talsari police station said that had the local police been informed, “precautionary arrangements” could have been made, as is done during shoots in the sea.
“A doctor, an ambulance and lifeguards are mandatory while allowing a shoot in the sea,” an Odisha Police officer said.
The production house shooting at Talsari beach on Sunday had none of these arrangements.
The police said they were “probing all angles”.
According to preliminary findings, the 42-year-old actor and his co-star were shooting in “knee-deep” water on Sunday evening when the woman, dressed in a sari, fell on the uneven beach and got trapped. Banerjee drowned while trying to save her.
The woman was rescued by a boatman, but Banerjee could not be traced for a considerable time. By the time he was pulled out, he had already ingested a large amount of sand and seawater.
Banerjee, who was alive when rescued, was declared dead at a Digha hospital.
