New Delhi , Aug 6 : The Department of Personnel and Training issued a notification paving way for CBI probe in Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, PTI reported. The development came hours after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the Supreme Court that it had accepted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s request for a CBI probe.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court sought a status report from Maharashtra Police on the investigation into Rajput’s death. The SC bench, headed by Justice Hrishikesh Roy, also asked Maharashtra, Bihar and Rajput’s father to file their replies on actor Rhea Chakraborty’s petition seeking transfer of case from Patna to Mumbai.
A bench headed by Justice Hrishikesh Roy said the truth behind Sushant’s death needs to come out. “Truth should come out so far as the actor’s death is concerned,” the bench said. Rajput, aged 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14.
The Bihar Police had last week registered an FIR against Chakraborty, her family members and others on the charge of abetment to suicide, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement.
The lawyer representing Rajput’s father claimed in the SC that Maharashtra Police was destroying evidence in the case. The probe of the Bihar Police SIT sent to Mumbai to investigate Rajput’s death has come to a halt after Patna City (Central) SP Vinay Tiwari, who is leading the team, was put into home quarantine by the BMC.
“Quarantining of Bihar Police officer has not sent good message despite the fact that Mumbai Police has good professional reputation,” the court said.
Saying that the matter has been turned into a “political case”, the Maharashtra government contended that Patna police had no jurisdiction to either lodge an FIR or investigate it.
On Tuesday, Chakraborty’s lawyer, reacting to Bihar government recommending a CBI probe into Rajput’s death, said, “The petition filed by Rhea Chakraborty in Supreme Court that Bihar Police had no jurisdiction to investigate the case will continue to be heard. There cannot be a transfer to CBI of a case that had no legal basis for Bihar to get involved. At the most (what could have been registered in Bihar) is a zero FIR transferable to Mumbai Police.”
At the centre of the row are the opposite statements given by Rajput’s father K K Singh to the police forces of the two states. Soon after the suicide, Singh and other family members had told the Mumbai Police that they do not suspect foul play and had no complaint against anyone.
However, later, Singh approached the police in Patna and gave a statement against Chakraborty, her family and others, for allegedly abetting Rajput’s suicide and transferring money from his account, among other things, drawing the Enforcement Directorate to investigate alleged money laundering.
With PTI inputs
