‘MUMBAI COPS PROTECTING A POLITICIAN’
LATE ACTOR’S FAMILY LAWYER RUBBISHES MUMBAI POLICE’S ‘BIPOLAR DISORDER’ SEARCH CLAIMS, ALLEGES MAHARASHTRA GOVT TRYING TO HIDE SOMETHING
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing Sushant Singh Rajput’s family, says the Mumbai Police claim that the forensic reports, showing Sushant searched for ‘painless death’ and ‘bipolar disorder’ among other searches a few hours before his death, are ‘planted stories to divert the attention of the public.’
The case has caught the imagination not only of the country, but globally, he said. Referring to the reports that Sushant was planning to start organic farming in Coorg, Singh says such is not the frame of mind of someone who is planning to die by suicide.
Asked whether the case is being used by political parties to gain mileage, he said he would not say so as far as the Bihar Police is concerned. “They (Bihar government) are dealing with the son of the soil who died under mysterious circumstances,” he said and pointed out that the Bihar government had not requested the central government for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter until Sushant’s father requested it for such a probe.
But the Maharashtra government is trying to hide something and save some politicians, Singh said, without naming anyone. “I am not hinting at anybody, but there is somebody they are trying to protect,” he said.
Speaking out on Tuesday to clear the air on speculation connecting him to the case, state environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, had said he was in no way connected to Rajput's death, and that he and his family were being targeted for no reason. Describing attempts to link him to the case as dirty politics, he had said the allegations being levelled against him were "political stomach-ache" stemming from frustration.
Commenting on the quarantining by the civic body of a Bihar SP who came to the city to probe the case, Singh said it is ‘outrageous’ and unheard of during a pandemic that a police officer who has come from another state to investigate a case has been quarantined. “The purpose (of the quarantining) is to help the accused,” he said.
Rhea’s lawyer had sought interim protection for his client from the Bihar Police taking any coercive action against her on Wednesday in the apex court during a hearing on her petition to transfer the Bihar FIR to Mumbai. Singh said that while only they can answer why they sought protection, it was basically to ensure that the truth does not come out. He also questioned why Sushant’s body was taken to Cooper Hospital where the Thackeray’s have a say and not to Lilavati hospital that was nearer. He said the police did not follow protocol. Even if the police must take the body to a municipal hospital, there was another municipal hospital nearer than Cooper, he said.