Bollywood director held over death

A top Bollywood director was today in police custody after the death of his young British assistant.

Kaizad Gustad was arrested for making a "false complaint to the police, negligence during shooting and fabrication of evidence" following the death of Nadia Khan, 26, police in India said. Another member of Gustad's film crew, identified as Ashish Udeshi, was also arrested.

Gustad, 36, who was guest of honour at Ms Khan's funeral in London, told mourners the film and media graduate had been hit by a car. But police investigations have since discovered the story was a lie.

In fact, Ms Khan had been struck by an express train while filming on the tracks of a mainline station in Bombay - apparently without the necessary approval.

Gustad was due to appear before a Bombay court today to be formally charged. If convicted, he and his crew member face three years in prison.

Ms Khan's father, Mohammad Mazir Khan, said the family planned to sue Gustad for negligence. "He shouldn't do this to anybody else," said Mr Khan, 65, a retired businessman. He said when Gustad came to London with the body of his youngest of four daughters, he "lied to us repeatedly. He first said she was run over by a car, then a truck."

After the burial, he told the family she had been hit by a train. "He told us he couldn't say anything more," Mr Khan said.

His daughter graduated from the University of North London - now London Metropolitan - last year and when she landed a job on a Bollywood blockbuster, it seemed like a dream come true.

She was to work alongside the legendary director on his newest movie, Mumbai Central. But just hours into her first day she was dead. One actor in the Bollywood film told the Standard that Ms Khan, working as second assistant director on the first day of a planned five-day shoot, had walked on to the tracks with a camera and was talking on her mobile phone when the accident happened.

Vijay Raaz, who plays a gangster, was a few feet away when the train struck. "I heard Nadia being hit by the train. It was really shocking. The unit members rushed and picked her up and took her to hospital," he said.

Today, her distraught family told of their anger at the cover-up and called on the British and Indian authorities to mount an inquiry into her death.

"Nothing will bring Nadia back, but we owe it to her memory to find out the whole truth," her younger sister, Huma, said. "I have spoken to the police in London and we will try and get a full investigation in India. We have to know who lied and why. This is such a cruel thing to happen."

The horrifying discovery that they had been lied to was made worse, Ms Khan's family say, by the fact that Gustad played a central role at her funeral in Hainault, Essex. He flew home with her body, hugged relatives and even rode in one of the official cars behind the cortege.

At the funeral the director told reporters: "The whole thing has been very tragic."

Referring to the diplomatic wrangling he said he had to undergo to ensure her body was allowed home quickly for an Islamic burial, he said: "She was a Pakistani girl with a British passport, killed in India. I had to go through so much with the authorities to get her here to be buried so quickly."

The Walthamstow Coroner's office was told Ms Khan had been hit by a car and her body was released speedily, as required by her Muslim religion.

Gustad returned home the following day - leaving her family struggling to make sense of the mystery that has since unfolded.

Railway authorities said the crew did not have clearance to shoot at the accident site, a citycentre rail station.

Gustad said he welcomed the investigation and said he and his crew voluntarily went to the police.