Shefali Jariwala, popular for the 2002 cult hit "Kaanta Laga" video, died after suffering cardiac arrest on June 27. She was only 42. While the post-mortem report was not made public, reports suggested that she died after taking unsupervised anti-ageing medicines on an empty stomach on the day of her death.
Months after her death, husband Parag Tyagi refuted the claims during an interaction on the YouTube channel Shefali Parag Tyagi.
"This is half-baked information. I want to ask, which of these were anti-ageing medicines? Shefali didn't want to take multivitamins daily as she would forget them, so she took them through IV drip once a month. These included multivitamins, Vitamin C, collagen, and glutathione, which is one of the best antioxidants," Parag said.
Speculation over the cause of death intensified after Mumbai Police and forensic experts found glutathione injections, Vitamin C shots and acidity pills, raising concerns over the prolonged and unsupervised use of such treatments.
Refuting this, Parag said, "We took those medicines and she took that on that day. It wasn't that she didn't eat that day. She was fasting that day, but she had food after doing Pooja and after that she slept; she woke up and again had food. At night he came to give her that..."
He added, "What anti-ageing are people talking about? She didn't look her age because of the hard work behind it. She controlled her diet, but that doesn't mean she didn't eat. She would have a 1/2 kg ice cream pack, but of course we would work out also after that, and we ate this at least twice a week. She would eat Chinese or something else every Sunday. She never deprived herself of anything. I don't know where this fasting thing is coming from. I think this was said by someone and they just picked up from there, and I request people to find the truth and then talk."
Shefali's Death
The post-mortem was conducted at Cooper Hospital and recorded on video. "She was brought to the hospital around 11:15 pm (Friday). The on-duty doctor declared her dead on arrival," a hospital source said.
Initial findings from the medical examination indicated that her death may have been caused by "low blood pressure, cardiac arrest and heavy gastric condition."
A source told NDTV, "There was a puja at home on June 27, due to which Shefali was fasting. Despite this, she took an injection of anti-ageing medicine in the afternoon of the same day. These medicines were advised to her by a doctor years ago, and since then she has been taking this treatment every month. So far in the police investigation, it has come to light that these medicines could be a major reason for cardiac arrest."
Shefali Jariwala rose to fame in 2002 with the music video Kaanta Laga, which became a pop culture phenomenon. She later appeared in the 2004 film Mujhse Shaadi Karogi alongside Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar. She was also seen in reality shows like Nach Baliye (Seasons 5 and 7) and Bigg Boss 13.