CBI PROBE IN SUSHANT DEATH CASE APPROVED, CENTRAL GOVT TELLS APEX COURT
PLEA Top court hearing Rhea Chakraborty’s petition to transfer the FIR against her to Mumbai
NEWDELHI: The Union government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it has accepted Bihar’s recommendation for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, which has sparked a debate on mental health issues, how the film industry treats outsiders, and also the circumstances that led to his suspected suicide on June 14.
The court was hearing a plea by Rajput’s girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty, who sought the transfer of a first information report (FIR) against her from Patna to Mumbai in the wake of a jurisdictional dispute between police forces in Bihar and Maharashtra. The July 25 FIR — based on a complaint by KK Singh, Rajput’s father — accused Chakraborty of abetting the 34-year-old actor’s suicide.
A single-judge bench of the Supreme Court, which observed that the truth behind the death of the “talented artist” should come out, asked Maharashtra and Bihar as well as Singh to file their replies on Chakraborty’s plea within three days. Justice Hrishikesh Roy did not pass any protective order in Chakraborty’s favour. The court asked Maharashtra to inform the court about the status of investigation by the Mumbai Police. The case will come up for hearing next week.
During the hearing through video-conferencing, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre, told the court: “The Union of India has in principle accepted the request by Bihar to have a CBI probe.” Later in the day, the department of personnel and training issued a notification to this effect.
At the heart of the case is a question of who the case originally belongs to — Maharashtra or Bihar. Chakraborty’s legal team says the Bihar government cannot recommend a CBI probe since police from that state do not have any jurisdiction to even investigate the case.
On Wednesday, the Maharashtra government, through senior counsel R Basant, too, contested the Bihar Police’s jurisdiction to first register an FIR, and then to recommend a CBI probe. He argued that the Bihar government’s actions went against the principles of federalism and that the state where the incident took place had the authority to investigate. “The cause of action was in Mumbai and Mumbai Police are investigating [the matter]. This person [Rajput’s father], without even filing a complaint before Mumbai Police, says Mumbai Police are not investigating properly. Mumbai police have done very professional job,” Basant argued. The incident is being used to score political points, he added.
The court told Basant that it was “not professional on the part of Mumbai Police to confine an officer who came from Patna on the ground of Covid”.