‘Mumbai Police can’t be trusted to do a fair probe’
The controversy over actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death grows with each passing day. And Tanushree Dutta, who left Bollywood over a decade ago and is in the US at present, is keeping herself posted with the developments.
However, the actor, whose sexual harassment complaint against actor Nana Patekar — filed on October 10, 2018 —was closed by Mumbai Police last year citing lack of evidence, isn't happy with the probe. “Mumbai Police can’t be trusted with doing a fair investigation,” she says, adding, “They are usually too quick to dismiss such cases.”
“In my case too, they pretended to investigate for months. I wasted so much time and energy doing an FIR, submitting a wealth of evidence and witness testimonies, video footage. Yet in their final report they refused to even take into account all that evidence, didn’t follow up with key witnesses who were threatened into silence by Nana’s lawyers... What we had provided to Mumbai Police, had it been in the US, all those people would’ve been sentenced to prison,” she says.
Lauding those rallying to get a fair probe for the late actor, Dutta says, “I was really shocked. I thought after Jiah Khan (who died in 2013) nothing of this sort would happen in Bollywood. Sushant’s story is even more heartbreaking as he had everything going for him.”
What also followed Rajput’s death has been a debate about nepotism and insiders vs outsiders. Dutta says there are some people who are in a successful place and have the power to destroy an actor. “I got saved because I went away. If I had stuck around then I know that there is only so much your mind can take. Sad Sushant couldn’t walk away,” she adds.