Bikram doesn't know where he was from 2.15 am to 3.30 am on night of crash

The mystery behind the car accident that claimed the life of celebrated model Sonika Chauhan has become deeper, with the police finding discrepancies in the statement of actor Bikram Chatterjee, who was driving the car. The police grilled Bikram twice in 24 hours. On Tuesday night, Bikram was interrogated for around three hours and again faced a marathon interrogation from 1.30 pm to 6.15 pm on Wednesday.

Members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising of police officers from Tollygunge police station have tried mainly to get answers to two questions to solve the mystery — whether Bikram was driving in an inebriated state and, secondly, where he went for an hour after taking Sonika in his car from a hotel in south Kolkata.

After the marathon interrogation, many clues including Sonika and Bikram's hopping from one night club to another on the fateful night of the accident and the presence of another actor, with whom Sonika was maintaining a distance, in one of the clubs have come to the hands of the investigators.

The police officers have also come to know that Bikram had taken alcohol, though he is yet to give any straight forward reply to the questions of the policemen in this connection.

Bikram and Sonika had left the hotel at around 2.15 am on April 29 and the accident took place at around 3.30 am. It does not take an hour to reach the spot, Lake Mall, where the accident took place, from the hotel near Minto Park in the wee hours. The police are now trying to ascertain exactly what had happened during that one-hour period.

The cops came to know that on the night of April 29, Sonika went to three different restro-bars and night clubs. In two of those, she was accompanied by Bikram.

Sonika was with some friends in a well known restro-bar where Bikram went that night and took her along with him to a night club at Shakespeare Sarani where the model had thrown a party as she was suppose to leave the city for Mumbai in the next few days.

At the night club, they found actor Saheb Bhattacharya though he was not invited to the party. Sources said that Sonika had started maintaining a distance with Saheb for the past few months.

However, all three of them had some discussions among themselves as well. The police have got to know from some of their common friends that Bikram and Sonika were "very close friends" and the cops are trying to find out whether there was any affair between them.

Sonika and Bikram then went to another night-club near Minto Park from where they left at around 2.15 am. Sources said that during Wednesday's interrogation, Bikram told the police that they went near Bikram's residence on Swinhow Lane, Kasba, in south Kolkata after leaving the night club and the accident took place while heading towards Sonika's house at Watgunge in the port area.

The police are now trying to ascertain where the one hour, 15 minutes after leaving the night club and before the accident had been spent as they went near Bikram's residence. The police have also come to know that the duo had jostled among themselves in the car.

Why?It's not yet clear.