Mumbai and Bihar row: Signs of thaw
After a two-week-long festering row over jurisdiction between the Mumbai and the Patna police in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, there are signs of a thaw with city Police Commissioner Paramveer Singh telephoning Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey and clarifying that no complaint had been registered against the visiting Bihar policemen in Mumbai.
Pandey said this evening that Singh rang him up and informed that no case or complaint had been registered against the five policemen who had visited Mumbai recently. All such reports were false. Pandey thanked Singh and claimed the talks were cordial and friendly.
Five Bihar police officers led by Patna SP, Vinay Tiwari, had visited Mumbai for investigation of the case following registration of an FIR by Rajput’s father in Patna against six people, including five family members of Rhea Chakraborty.
Incidentally, the BMC, in a case of overreach, had placed the Patna SP under quarantine on arrival in Mumbai, thereby escalating the standoff.
Meanwhile, Neeraj Kumar, BJP MLA and cousin of SSR, on Wednesday claimed he has sent a legal notice to Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut regretting his (Raut’s) comments about the family of SSR and the personal attack on K K Singh, the actor’s father. Raut had been asked to tender an unqualified apology for his baseless and uncharitable remarks within 48 hours failing which the BJP MLA would file a defamation suit at Patna against the MP. Raut had alleged that SSR’s father had married twice and was not on good terms with his only son. He had also not come to meet his only son for long, Raut had suggested. The Sena MP had also commented against the DGP of Bihar and alleged that Pandey was trying to contest the coming assembly elections on a BJP ticket. Pandey admitted Raut had made uncharitable personal comments about him, but insisted he would not seek any action since he was an "honourable MP." Meanwhile, a complaint has been filed with the Patna police against Raut, the Mumbai Mayor and the Mumbai police commissioner alleging that they had prevented the Patna police from investigating the SSR death case in Mumbai.