Cong, BJP trade barbs over case
MUMBAI: The Congress has demanded an investigation into the alleged nexus between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and filmmaker Sandeep Ssingh in connection with Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. The BJP hit back questioning why the Maharashtra police overlooked “drug dealing angle” to the case and whether they were trying to shield some political leaders from the ruling Congress, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance in the state.
When HT called Ssingh for a comment, his phone was switched off, and he had not responded to a message till the time of going to press.
State Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant has written to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and home minister Anil Deshmukh seeking a probe into the drug dealing in Bollywood. He claimed the filmmaker has links with BJP leaders from the state. Sawant said it needs to be investigated if the leaders had been shielding people involved in narcotics dealings. He added it appears BJP’S top state leaders are very close to the Bollywood members and it needs to be probed if they are privy to the drug dealing.
“I have tweeted the poster of biopic on the life of Prime Minister Narendra Modi produced by Sandeep Ssingh. The poster was released by then Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. We want to know if this was the reason why the drug nexus in Bollywood was not probed by the previous government. It needs to be clarified that Sandeep Ssingh’s involvement in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case was the reason why the case was hurriedly handed over to CBI and Enforcement Directorate, the agencies controlled by the Central government,” Sawant said.
BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis questioned why the state did not probe the Ssingh angle. “The state police kept maintaining it was a suicide. They should have probed Ssingh too. Now a news has come about how Sssingh was co-producing a biopic on the life of honourable Bal Thackeray a few years ago. What will Congress now say about that link,” he said. BJP MLA Ram Kadam separately wrote to Thackeray demanding a debate in the Assembly over the matter and a through probe into the drugs dealing in Bollywood.
Kadam said they do not know why the Mumbai police did not check the drug angle related to the case during their probe that went on for 65 days. “Why didn’t Ssingh’s chats not come to the fore? Was Mumbai police trying to shield some leader from the ruling parties. Congress is now raising doubts over Sandeep Ssingh’s links to our leaders, but it should have probed it when the investigation was with the state police. The state government is free to probe the Sandeep Ssingh episode to any extent.”
THE PARTIES HAVE GOT IN A WAR OF WORDS OVER THE DRUGS ANGLE IN THE SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT DEATH CASE